When we focus our eyes solely on God, we stop having a ‘me’ mindset/ perspective and put on the perspective of Jesus.
Recently I’ve been struggling with body image as I see the changes that have taken place over my body in the last seven months. I have been really harsh on myself, just letting insecurities and self judgement overrule many of my thoughts. What I didn’t realize was these thoughts were keeping me from genuinely living out the truth of my identity that’s found in the Lord, as well as what He’s trying to teach me. I’m my biggest critic and continuing to put myself down has just allowed the enemy to push more lies leading me to spiral in my thoughts. Wednesday morning I got up at 5 am for prayer. I spent a majority of the hour in thanksgiving, focusing solely on how GOOD God is, how blessed I am to know Him. This just allowed me to start my day with so much joy and thankfulness in my heart, allowing me to live out of an overflow. We went on a prayer/evangelism walk for our morning ministry and my team was able to lead a man to Christ after sharing the gospel with him. My heart filled with overwhelming joy and I couldn’t stop cheesin! I mean I just gained a brother in Christ- what’s not to be over the moon excited and praising His name for just using us as a vessel to share of His goodness. Throughout the day I continued to praise Him in the little things and go into each situation with the perspective Jesus would most likely have. When I got to the end of my day, I realized how joyous I had been throughout the day. That not a single time in the day had I complained about my body or gave myself a hard time for something I did wrong. I hadn’t even really thought about myself because I was so focused on Him and who I could love. I think when we stop focusing so much on what we want or allowing our circumstances to define ourselves and begin to praise Him continuously, He will begin to open our eyes to a whole new perspective. I saw myself the way Jesus sees me everyday. I loved myself today. I gave myself grace today. I was full of joy today! We hear “more of Him, less of me” and “die to yourself” a lot in Christian lingo, and it starts with laying all your issues and circumstances down and just giving Him all the glory He deserves.
It’s a never-ending battle and I’m not saying I have it all figured out because I guarantee I’ll continue to struggle with body image, but I’m gonna stop looking in the mirror and start thanking Him for what He did give me!
