WordCosmos

Do you know you are precious? God must’ve seen something in you that he decided to leave heaven, come down to earth and die for you while you were yet a sinner (John 3:19). The Lord has wonderfully and fearfully created you in his image and likeness, and this will never change. For someone out there, this might be far from reality. You are yet to see through the eyes of Jesus, the way He sees you and what He sees in you. This will entirely change the perspective of how you see yourself.

How do you see yourself through the eyes of Jesus?

Let’s look at the story of Peter. Before he met the Lord, he was just another fisherman, going around doing his business. That was all he lived for. But all that changed the day he encountered Jesus. Looking at peter, the Lord saw more than just a fisherman, he saw a rock, a valuable treasure in the kingdom of God, the rock on which He would build His church. Jesus changed his name from Simon Peter the fisherman to Cephas the rock (John 1:40-42). Maybe your family, friends, acquaintances and society might not yet see the gold in you, but be rest assured the Lord sees it. You are valuable to him. Jesus loves you so much that he wouldn’t leave you the same way he found you. Peter must have been wandering what was going on? He couldn’t see himself through Jesus’s eyes. The gold Jesus saw in Peter wasn’t yet refined, it was still in its raw form, mixed with earth and still undefined. It needed to be refined. Peter had many shortcomings. He was arrogant, ill tempered, doubled faced and even denied the Lord (Mark 14:66-72). When Jesus was crucified and buried, the same Peter lost faith in the resurrection and convinced his brothers back to their old life of fishing.

The Lord never abandoned Peter after the denial. Instead when He resurrected, He sent a message of encouragement to strengthen his disciples, especially Peter (Mark 16:7). Again, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, there He asked Peter 3 times if he loved Him. Peter answered, but this time in a rather unusual way, he recognized his shortcomings, he recognized he could only stay steadfast by God’s grace, he knew the Lord knew of his weaknesses as well as his Love for Him. Perhaps you are out there like Peter today, saying “Lord, I know I’m not sufficient on my own, my weaknesses have taken a toll on me, I have denied you multiple times, seeked solutions my own way, but Lord you know I love you, please help me”. The Lord knows your weaknesses and he is ready to help you. He said in (2 Corinth 12:9) “My grace is sufficient unto you and my strength is made perfect in your weaknesses”.

The Life of Peter was transformed after the Holy spirit came upon him on the day of Pentecost. He was filled with the Spirit of God, refined, endowed with power and boldness. At this point, everything about the old Peter died. The arrogant peter became the humble Peter, the double faced peter, now had the Spirit of truth in him. The eyes of his understanding were opened. He began to see himself through the eyes of the Spirit. For the first time in his life, he recognised what he carried on the inside. He began to see what the Lord saw in him and to understood why He changed his name. we could call it “ The Divine self-awareness”. This Divine self-awareness could be seen in action when the Lord through Peter and John healed the lame man who sat daily at the temple in Jerusalem; and Peter fixing his eyes on the lame said to him “Look at us” (Acts 3:1-8). He could only have uttered that statement being fully confident and aware of whom he was in Christ.

I pray the Holy Spirit fills your heart, and the eyes of your understanding be opened, so you recognise who you are in Christ,  and confidently say “Look at me!!” Amen.