From my very earliest of years, I have learned so much from just watching the birds. I was raised by my father in the rural country surrounded by the woods, and we also had access to seven sizable ponds, so birds were frequent visitors. One in particular was a Great Blue Heron which would stop there every year. And even to this day, forty some years after leaving the country, it still does!

Watching these birds teaches me so much about God’s love and provision. A variety of birds visit our trees and our yard in Maryland, included are Robins, cardinals, orioles, blue jays, and hummingbirds.  When I study how far some of these birds travel each year, I marvel at how God sustains them throughout their migrations. It’s a joy to scatter sunflower seeds to help meet their needs.

I’ve also seen graceful herons and colorful wood ducks visit the nearby water ways where I live. A few times, a bald eagle has swooped over the lake to grab a fish for supper. In the winter, I regularly hear owls calling to one another in our woods. Each bird’s personality reflects a different aspect of God’s creativity.

All the birds I see or hear inspire me to praise God for the beauty of his creation.

Yet as wonderful as all of these species of birds are, they pale in comparison to the value and importance we people, God’s Children, have in God’s kingdom.

God, the Author and Creator of our life, through Jesus, affirmed our value with this verse: Matthew 6:26 Amplified ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow [seed] nor reap [the harvest] nor gather [the crops] into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

When You Struggle with Self-Worth, as all of humanity will from time to time, Pray! Always Try Hard to Remember this: You Are Somebody Special to God!!! 

Matthew 6:25-34 The Message

^25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

^27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

^30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

³⁴ “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and do not get all worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Today, we are going to continue with the subject theme of “Who Am I,” but I believe it is time to discover who the Bible says we are. We have discovered who the Bible said the men of the bible were, but what does the Bible say about me?

Have you ever felt like a failure in life? Have you ever experienced insecurity? Some are insecure about your appearance, your abilities, your personality, your life, your choices? Have you felt unloved and worthless? Have you ever said the following words: “I am not attractive? I can’t do all the things that person can do. I am not good enough. Nothing good ever happens in my life. I am a failure.”

If your mind is filled or being overwhelmed with thoughts of worthlessness, shame, embarrassment and low self-esteem, valuelessness, then it is time this day to address all of that perceived insecurity. Some may ask; “how do I get rid of insecurity that has been there my whole life?” If you have ever felt that way, you need to listen to the messages for the next few weeks, because the only way we can address all those feelings is by realizing that WE are God’s most prized possession! If God had to choose the finest thing that He has ever created – He would choose you and me! We are somebody extraordinarily special to God!

Those thoughts and feelings of being worthless and devalued surround millions of people around the globe and they are the very worst kind of lies from the devil aimed at getting you so down on yourself that you will never experience God’s abundant best for your life. These thoughts try to get you to feel you are just not or never will be “good enough,” so why would God ever want to bless me?” God does not have one child who is not good enough to receive His love.

There are a whole lot of people who never learn how to enjoy victories in their lives because of such low self-esteem. Jesus said that we are to love one another even as we love ourselves. If you don’t like YOU, how are you ever going to like someone else? Low self-esteem is a result of a lack of knowledge, a lack of what I call “GOD-ESTEEM!”. I am absolutely convinced that the core reason so many Christians live way below their privileges as a child of God is because they don’t know that they are blessed and highly favored of the Lord. My favorite saying is, “I’m healthy, wealthy, wise, blessed and highly esteemed, favored of the Lord!!!”

AS WE STRUGGLE WITH OUR SELF-WORTH

We often spend too much of our time focusing on and prioritizing, losing sight of just exactly and exactingly, how absolutely valuable we are to God. Many of us see easily all of the most beautiful and valued things in God’s creation and in other people. Yet we somehow will refuse to value ourselves in light of how God 100% loves us. Some of us get stuck, struggle with feelings of low self-worth.

“Gee whiz, I have this physical or mental health challenge”, “I have a different standard of acceptability amongst my fellow human beings.” “My value and my self-worth are automatically assigned to me differently.” “As mankind assigns me my value, my self-worth, it automatically becomes my standard of living.”

If you struggle with any of these and similar sounding thoughts of self-worth, let Jesus’ words bring you comfort today. Look at the birds outside your window today, consider how wonderfully, automatically, God cares for them. Then pray about how much more he cares for you every day. How valuable you are to him. How much more could you value yourself when you realize, come to experience, echelons far above mankind’s standard of judgement IS God’s standard of care?

Isaiah 61:10-11 English Standard Version

¹⁰ I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.

As a change of pace, consider the greatest plans and purposes God has for you, in comparison to birds. Then take the risk and take one giant sized baby step out in a bolder more confident, greater faith, trusting in the value and worth which Jesus places on you, rather than choosing a negative thought pattern.

As you meditate on the truth of God’s Word from the Gospel of Matthew, you can begin to see your great value in God’s eyes. You can overcome feelings of low self-worth when you believe Jesus says you are greatly valuable to him. Slowly, and I believe surely and genuinely, those thoughts can be case aside into the vast, immeasurable expanse and depths of God’s great Sea of Forgetfulness!

CELEBRATE GOD DAILY EXACTLY AS GOD IS DAILY CELEBRATING YOU!!!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, PRAY!

Let us set aside what we perceive and believe to be our value is to the world,

Psalm 8 Names of God Bible

Psalm 8

For the choir director; on the gittith;^[a] a psalm by David.

¹ O Yahweh, our Adonay, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!

Your glory is sung above the heavens.^[b]
2 From the mouths of little children and infants,
    you have built a fortress against your opponents
        to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens,
    the creation of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars that you have set in place—
⁴         what is a mortal that you remember him
            or the Son of Man that you take care of him?
⁵         You have made him a little lower than yourself.
        You have crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶         You have made him rule what your hands created.
        You have put everything under his control:
⁷             all the sheep and cattle, the wild animals,
⁸             the birds, the fish,
            whatever swims in the currents of the seas.

⁹ O Yahweh, our Adonay, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!

https://translate.google.com/