What Does God Really Think Of Me ?
October 2021 |
When it comes to self-evaluation, there are two extremes. On the one side, we think more highly of ourselves than we should. We compare ourselves with others, and we seem to come out pretty good. According to our score sheet, we rate an A-plus. In fact, there would be less problems in the world if more people would be like us.
On the other side of the coin, there are those who cannot seem to find anything of worth in themselves. This is more than the glass being half filled; this is a person who sees no value at all in himself. The truth is almost always somewhere in the middle.
But what does God really think of me?
God Thinks About Us
God really does think about you and about me. People ask, “What do you think God thinks about when He looks at us?” The common response would be, “He’s thinking about all the bad stuff we’ve done. He’s shaking His head. It’s not good.” Of course, we understand that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) and that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), but we have to factor in God’s love.
God’s Love Makes the Difference
Without God’s love, the end of our narrative is foreboding and bleak. We could never change our past or atone for our sins. Therefore, we must come to the conclusion that only judgment awaits us. We cannot do a plethora of religious chores and expect to cover our moral and spiritual failures. Remember, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa. 64:6).
And yet there is hope: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6).
So let us ask again: What does God really think of you and of me?
Peace and Not Evil
Jeremiah’s letter to the Jewish captives in Babylon was meant to come against the negative picture painted by the false prophets of what the future held for them.
Jeremiah explained the thoughts God was having concerning them while they were in the midst of a well-deserved chastisement: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jer. 29:11).
God was thinking ahead to when the Babylonian Captivity would conclude, and God’s people could return to Jerusalem once again.
Punishment is Removed
“Wipe your tears; the punishment is over”—this was the official way my dear mother told me to stop crying and get on with life.
It’s easier to stop crying once the punishment is over. There’s no need to wallow in darkness and despair. The punishment has taken care of the failure. It’s easier for us to think that God has good thoughts about us if we have somehow gone through the punishment.
How is it possible for God to have good thoughts about you right now?
It is possible because the punishment has already been applied upon Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:4-5 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Now it is easier to see how God could have pleasant thoughts about us: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jer. 29:11).
The key to knowing God has good thoughts toward us is to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that our sins have been removed. They have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. When the sin is removed, the punishment is also removed.
Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, have become “a new creature” in Christ Jesus, and God now acts upon the good thoughts He has toward them.
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