Sometimes I take time to meditate on who God designed me to be and how I can take steps to live like that person more often. I want to give up some of my behaviors that serve to emphasize the boundaries of my comfort zone instead of expanding them. I tend to hide my true self by simply going along with the flow of what other people are doing and saying. I do not want to rock any boats by bringing up opposing viewpoints. On the surface, it may seem like I am keeping the peace but really, most of the time, I am just too afraid to stand out. Fitting in is more comfortable. The result of this behavior is lukewarm living, and God does not like lukewarm attitudes and behaviors (see Revelation 3:16).
One reason that it is more comfortable to fit in is my habit of comparing me with other people. I tend to compare myself with others, find myself lacking, and then I am fearful of sharing anything because I do not feel worthy. Therefore, meditating on who God designed me to be should help. Psalm 139:13-16 says that He made all of the intricate details of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. His workmanship is wonderful, and He made me. He knew everything that I would do—good, bad, or indifferent—before I took my first breath. Yet, He chose me anyway. Like a lonely child in an orphanage on the day of a long-awaited adoption, God chose me to be one of His own.
These truths should make me perfectly content and secure, but I do not always live as if they do. Often, I live as if people’s opinions are the epitome and God’s opinion is hard to grasp. Therefore, I will meditate on God’s love for me. I will think about how He designed me for a good purpose, and He wants me to live within that purpose. It is okay to do and say things that I believe wholeheartedly in my soul even when rejection comes back to me. I will remember that when I speak God’s truth, I will get some rejection by the world. I am not greater than the One I follow, and He was despised and rejected by the world. But God will encourage me, even if the world rejects me.
I will concentrate on being truly content with the way God made me. Godliness with contentment is of great worth (see 1 Timothy 6:6). I can be content with who I am, even though I am flawed because I know that God is with me, and He will not leave me no matter what. He will always help me to learn and grow.
I pray that out of God’s glorious riches He may strengthen me with power through His Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And I pray that I, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know His love that surpasses knowledge and that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (see Ephesians 3:16-19).
When I am afraid of other’s opinions, it shows that I am not remembering God’s truth that He loves me with a perfect love and perfect love expels fear (see 1 John 4:18). Jesus went to great lengths to show me the love of God and that is the perfect love that drives away fear.
I have been chosen for obedience to Christ. That is a get-to, not a should. I get to live for Him. That is an unbelievable, undeserved privilege. As I obey, grace and peace will multiple in my life (see 1 Peter 1:2). It is a process though and as I learn; God will provide everything I need to grow. I cannot make a mistake that is so big that I will be beyond God’s immense mercy and grace. I will never be perfect but that should not stop me from being who God designed me to be. Other people’s opinions will always be out there, but those opinions should never interfere with my obedience to the Lord.
Focusing on contentment with who God designed me should help me to relish the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection more because He died and rose again so that I could have a full and abundant life. He did not die so that I could hide and cower.
I pray that I realize more than I do now that Jesus is in the Father, I am in Christ, and Christ is in me (see John 14:20).