Unfortunately, there are so many of us, especially in this generation today, who struggle with identity. It doesn’t help that we live in a society that tells us how to look, dress, and speak. We keep looking at these images of models that either starve themselves to look the way they do, have plastic surgery done on themselves, or their pictures have been photoshopped. Can you imagine just how many things we compare ourselves to that are most likely not even real? We also spend so much of our time on social media watching other people’s lives and watching their accomplishments wishing we could have what they have. We don’t take into consideration what kind of deliverances and breakthroughs they might have had to walk through in order to get there. We don’t even know if what they are showing us is real. However, there is an enemy of this world who’s sole desire is to kill, steal, and destroy. He loves to use the things we see all around us to get us to hate ourselves and become jealous of other people. So my question for you today is this: what are you feeding yourself?
All of us have been created with a special design, purpose, and plan (Psalm 139:13-14). All of us are God’s masterpiece and when you devote yourself to God and allow him to transform you, you begin to change into a completely new person and actually discover who you were really created to be (Ephesians 2:10). The problem though for a lot of believers is that we have this one sided relationship with God where we just go to church and behave ourselves on Sunday, get our peace for the day, and then throw God in the closet for the rest of the week. Then, we go and “live our best life” doing what we want, chasing after all kinds of things and wondering why we aren’t happy with ourselves and seem to be getting nowhere. The problem is we are feeding ourselves the wrong thing. The Bible says we cannot serve two masters, it’s either we love God or we don’t (Matthew 6:24). That verse I just shared says we can’t be enslaved to money but it also goes for anything we place before God. That can be clothes, food, cars, houses, jewelry, partying, literally anything. We have been feeding ourselves the wrong thing so it would be incorrect for me to get on here and simply tell you how loved and beautiful and great you are without pointing you towards Jesus, the bread of life.
Let me direct your attention to John 6:22-59. Here, Jesus is having a conversation with some people after miraculously feeding five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Even after following Jesus around everywhere he went and watching him perform all of these miracles, they still didn’t believe in him and challenged him to perform more signs and wonders the same way God had sent their ancestors manna down from heaven. He spends verses 32-59 explaining to them that he is the bread of life and whoever believes in him has eternal life. Therefore, whoever eats the bread of heaven will hunger no more.
“Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.) “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.” Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”
John 6:32-59 NLT
I encourage you that if you are struggling to love yourself, cry out to Jesus and I promise he will help you. He absolutely loves you and only wants what’s best for you. I encourage you to find a Bible and read it yourself. If you don’t have a physical Bible, there are many Bible apps out there that we can read from our phones that we already spend so much time on anyways. I encourage you to allow the Word of God to transform you and be amazed at what you learn about yourself and who God has called you to be. My own testimony is that I have struggled my whole life to love myself but since the day I made a decision to follow Christ and completely devote my life to him, I have been healing, changing, and learning so much about who God says that I am. I recently removed and flushed away a nose ring that I have had for 10 years. I have made it a daily habit to spend time with God and overtime, God revealed to me that I needed to get rid of my nose ring because I had placed all of my identity in it. I honestly used to believe that I wasn’t beautiful without it but once I removed it, I realized that nothing about my face had changed with it, I still looked exactly the same. God was showing me that I was beautiful all along and didn’t need a tiny piece of jewelry to tell me that. But, the only way I finally came to this understanding is by having a daily relationship with the Lord. Jesus is the bread I eat every day and become full and satisfied and I encourage you to do the same. I want you to know that you are not ugly, dumb, fat, slow, stupid, or worthless, in Jesus name. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, beautiful, smart, full of purpose, and worth something, in Jesus name. Take your ears from the lips of the enemy, stop believing his lies, turn to Jesus today and allow his love to fill you up inside today.
“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.”
Psalms 139:14-15 NLT
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