Reaching Out

Self-Image
By Ro Lashua

This month the topic or theme is self-image. Actually that is quite a broad topic. As you read through the articles this month, it is our desire at Believers Bay, that you gain a deeper understanding of our self-image and how it is formed and how we can use it more to do the work the Lord has given us personally to do.

The greatest revelation to me about self-image has been that it is so subjective. It is formed by my perception. What a weak, and inefficient source of input of data.

The reason I say that is because our perception has many filters. I have experienced this first hand. The interesting thing, for me, has been that I have seen the negative input from others affect my self-image. The negative input is not necessarily true but it affects my self-image. It takes a concerted effort to circumvent this input from changing my self-image. How silly is that.

Personally I find the study of self-image and how our mind works, a very interesting topic. It is amazing how God has created our minds to work.

The good news is God gives us instructions in his word, the Bible, as to what to do. He tells us to renew our minds. He tells us that as we think, so we are. He gives us the answers right there in the Bible. He knew we would need it.

The interesting thing about our self-image is that we need to do some self-talk to keep a healthy self-image. We need to speak what the Lord says about us. I have a small book of God’s promises published by a Thomas Nelson Company, J Countryman in Nashville, titled God’s Promises for Every Day. I enjoy reading this because it is just citations of Scriptures on specific topics.

For the topic of ‘What to do When You are Afraid’ there are 17 Scriptures. The first one is 2 Timothy 1:7 which tells us that God did not give us a spirit of fear but of a spirit of power and love and a sound mind.

That is encouraging! That is how we renew our minds. That is how we mold and form our self-image.

God wants us to live in victory. He does not want the enemy to control our lives though negative input that we accept. He wants us to have control that is governed by HIS WORD.

This time of year a lot of people have started reading through the bible. By now, the second month of the year, many have not kept up with it. If we have set it aside, I want to encourage you to pick it up again. If you feel the WHOLE Bible is a daunting task, start with just reading the New Testament through in a year or in six months. That is progress. The important thing is that we have our noses in the Bible. We need to let the Word of God renew us from the inside out. Let’s make sure we renew our minds daily by reading and meditating on the words that we read. Also, if we have an opportunity, listen to the word of God. The Bible says that Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. There are some sites where we can listen to the Bible. I will list some sites below.

http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/audio/

http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/bible.html

http://www.audiotreasure.com/indexKJV.htm (free downloads)

Let’s make this year a year of significant change in our hearts and minds through the renewing of our minds by God’s Word being a daily part of our spiritual diet. This will change our self-image more inline with God’s image of us.

May God Bless You Always!

Ro Lashua is a motivational speaker and freelance writer. She enjoys encouraging others to be all that God has for them to be. Please visit her Web site at: www.RoLashua.com.