POST 2: How Does God View You?
POST 2
How Does God View You?
I (Kristel) started actively following Jesus when I was a teenager. It was a confusing time as I ventured out to understand who I was and what role my new faith played in my journey of self-discovery.
The message I often received in churches and youth groups was that I was fundamentally flawed—sinful. I often wondered if God looked at me with disgust. Each time I stumbled, I gave myself a hard time and pictured God being irritated with me. How could God even stand the sight of me? I needed to do better and earn God’s love.
Grace may have been good enough to save me, but it wasn’t enough to keep me saved. God clearly expected me to pull myself up by my bootstraps, quit slacking off, and get myself together. Or so I thought.
Look Again
While we are all born with sin, it’s not obligation that causes God to save us; it’s love. It took me a long time, but one day I realized that God looks at me the way I look at my own children now—with awe and affection.
John 3:16 is the first verse I ever memorized: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.” Did you catch it? God so loved. That’s the reason God sent Jesus to this earth. Rather than looking down on us and our sin with anger or frustration, God looks at us with love and compassion. Verse 17 further clarifies that God didn’t send Jesus to judge or condemn us but to save us. God wanted better for us and would do whatever it took to rescue us from our mess.
At my church, we say that we love God completely, love ourselves correctly, and love our neighbors compassionately. When I meet with my small group of high school girls, I often find myself reminding them about the part that says “love ourselves correctly.” They feel so much pressure to look a certain way or get good grades or be perfect. Sometimes without thinking they will say something like “Ugh, I look terrible!” or “I’m so dumb” or “Sorry, I’m not wearing any makeup today!” When I hear comments like that, I take the opportunity to gently remind them that loving yourself correctly means talking to yourself kindly and remembering that you can show up just as you are without apology.
I love having conversations with them and helping them see that we are not meant to hate ourselves or put ourselves down. We look together at where God declares faithful love for us in Scripture. God calls us good and desires to be with us.
Even when we mess up, God’s love for us doesn’t change. When we stumble and fall, God doesn’t scoff at us and wait for us to stand and dust ourselves off. Instead, God wraps loving arms around us and holds us. God helps us to our feet and directs us forward in a new way. That’s what grace is.
If you ever question how God sees you, remember this: you are God’s creation, God’s child. God gave everything to be with you—right now and forever. God loves you with an everlasting, unending love.
READING GOD’S WORD
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16–17)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Because the world didn’t recognize him, it doesn’t recognize us.
Dear friends, now we are God’s children, and it hasn’t yet appeared what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we’ll see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves even as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)
REFLECT AND RESPOND
Journaling Questions
In the past, what have you been taught about the way God views you? How is that similar to or different from what you read today?
How do you know God loves you? What might make you question that love? What might help you be more confident in it?
How might knowing you are loved by God help you love yourself?
God, loving myself correctly can seem impossible at times. When I don’t love myself, help me to remember that you love me with an infinite and unconditional love. Help me to see myself the way you see me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
SOMETHING TO TRY
Today, pay close attention to the way you speak to yourself. Each time you catch your negative self-talk, stop and speak truth instead. If you’re not sure the best truth to focus on at the moment, remind yourself that you are loved by God.
THE TAKEAWAY
No matter how you look at yourself, God looks at you with unending love.