The new birth begins a transforming process in how you think about yourself. But it must be continued each day by renewing your mind. ‘Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:2 NLT). Observe, when your thinking is changed by God’s Word, two things happen: a) you know His will for you, and b) you know He is pleased with you. When those two things happen, your self-perception is changed and you’re no longer at the mercy of other people’s opinions or evaluation of you. Our opinion of ourselves is deeply affected by the opinions of the authority figures in our formative years. If our parents tended to neglect or ignore us, we concluded that we weren’t worth their time, attention, or love, and it tore at our self-worth. But as we mature in God’s Word, we learn to walk in the light of our new self-image and we gain new self-worth. Regardless of what you have been through in life or the mistakes you have made, God will help you to realise who you are and what He has graced you to do. Before Paul met Christ, he killed Christians; that’s as bad as it gets. But after he met Christ, he wrote, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.’ When you understand God’s grace – His unearned, undeserved, unfailing favour towards you – it will profoundly change how you feel about yourself.
