"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:20).
You've been bought with a price. Let me ask you a question. When God bought you, do you think He got ripped off?
God had to buy us back from the devil because Adam gave the keys to him. Therefore we were all doomed to go to hell.
Now, God is God, so why couldn't He just give him a bunch of gold, a bunch of diamonds, a bunch of sapphires, and say here, this is the price I'm going to pay for them, and get us with that? Because material goods were not good enough. It took the blood of Jesus to buy us.
So what are you saying to God? You got ripped off. You paid too high a price for me?
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33).
I want you to notice, it says, seek ye first the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is God's way of doing things. It's God's way of seeing things. He wants us to see things how He does.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.We read it three times, that man was made in the image of God. That means you. Now, "image" is a sculpture likeness—a reproduction of the form of someone or something.
(Gen. 1:26)
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.
(Gen. 5:1)
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
(Gen. 9:6)
People are always telling me that I look just like my mama. Now, if someone came up to me and said, "Girl, you are a spitting image of your mother. You look just like her," and then they say, "and your mama is so ugly." There are two obvious problems with that.
Number one, you don't talk about somebody's mother. Number two, if they're telling me that I'm in the image of my mother, and I look just like mother, and then they say my mother is ugly, then I guess that means they're calling me ugly as well.
God's Creations Are Beautiful
So if you are made in the image and likeness of God, who are you to call yourself ugly? Who are you to say that you are worthless? Who are you to say that you can't do it? Who are you to say, Lord, I can't carry out this plan, I don't have what it takes.
He said you are made in His image.
It says in the Bible that man is the glory of God. I looked up what glory meant in this context. Glory is majestic beauty and splendor. Manifestation of His presence. Something that brings honor and renown. A highly praise-worthy asset.
So if I take just the first definition, majestic beauty and splendor, I can say, "For as much I am the image of God, I am the majestic beauty and splendor of God." I'm not telling you that you are the glory of some loser. We're talking about the almighty God!
When you get a revelation that we are made in the image and likeness of God, take a moment just to think about God—the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, Pure Being—and no dirt!
And you are the glory of Him? When people see that image and self-confidence, they're going to want to know, whose is that?
Read Matthew 6:33 again and notice that it says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. We see that as we seek the Lord he'll prepare us.
God is showing us in His Word that we are made in the image of God and our confidence comes from Him. When you seek the kingdom of God first and you learn that you're made in the image and likeness of God, there's a confidence, a confidence that comes from God, and therefore you become attractive.
Think of Yourself as God Does
So as we are seeking God, all I have to do is stay in the Word, realize I am made in the image and likeness of God, that I am beautiful, I am the glory of God, and not just some loser.
How many know God is rich? He could have said My gold streets are My glory. He could have said, My angels are My glory. No, He said you are His glory. And as you seek first the kingdom of God you begin to learn and understand that, that confidence of God will glare off you.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.I looked up what the word "behold" means. It means to gaze—not just to look, but to gaze. It is used as an exclamatory force. Look at what? What manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Look at the way the Father loves me! Not only am I made in His image, He loves me!
(1 John 3:1)
Unfortunately, in the world today, just because a person has a child and that child may be in the image of them, looks just like them, and acts just like them, that does not mean that they love that child. But with the almighty God, behold, look—What manner of love the Father has bestowed on me.
We're all very familiar with John 3:16. It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, it says, "for God so loved." I want you to know you may have been loved, but you ain't been loved until you've been "so loved!"
Don't just read this verse and take it for granted. We're talking about the Almighty God. This ain't just anybody loving you!
So not only are you made in the image and likeness of God, you have the Almighty God, the only One, in love with you. In love with you, regardless of the fact that maybe in the physical realm you feel like you're on your own, that nobody loves you. You may not have grown up in a loving household.
You may not be in a situation where you feel loved. There may not be anybody patting you on the back. Satan will come right in and attack that self-confidence and that self-esteem. But I'm showing you that God loves you. And you are made in His image. So remember that when Satan comes to attack your self-esteem.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?Oh, thank you Jesus, that what nobody says is going to separate you from your love. Just because somebody persecutes you or tells you you'll never do anything in your life, don't let that separate you from the love of Christ. Just because some guy may tell you that you are unattractive, don't let that separate you from the love of Christ, because you have found a true love.
(Rom. 8:35)
I challenge you to stay in the Word on this issue. You are made in the image and likeness of God. Don't ever forget it. Just like you're not going to go tell a child, you look like your mama, and your mama is ugly. Don't tell that to Almighty God. We are His children, made in His image!
All rights reserved. Used by permission.