Have you ever been afraid of being called conceited? I was SO AFRAID. Being afraid of what people think of you puts you in a prison. Its binds up all of your gifts, your talents, your ideas, your soul, and ultimately your purpose. I remember being 8 years old and someone telling me I had a good singing voice. I would put on false humility and say I’m not that good- even though I thought I was pretty good! I didn’t think I was the best that ever lived, but I knew I had some talent.

I would tear myself down so people wouldn’t think I was conceited.  I would put on false humility and give them reasons why I wasn’t good. After all, people who were confident in their gifts were awful and WAY TOO IN TO THEMSELVES.

The criticism I sowed on overly ‘confident’ people was actually hindering any kind of love, value, or appreciation of the gifts God had put in me. I reaped the criticism I sowed. It makes complete sense why Jesus taught that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. We only love our neighbor as well as we love ourselves. If our love toward our neighbor is polluted we can’t possibly think we are giving ourselves anything any better. If our love toward ourselves is flawed, you can be sure your love for your neighbor is too. This is why we must draw so close to Him that we may become like Him, so we can give pure love to others and ourselves!

How many times do we try to play the ‘humble’ card, but we are actually playing the ‘big fat lying’ card? We hold our head down in humility so we can play the ‘lowly’ pious part. We are afraid of looking like little satans trying to steal God’s Glory. God is not insecure about sharing any of His glory with His kids. He is FAR TOO GLORIOUS to worry about that. You are actually His hope of getting more Glory (Colossians 1:27).

When God’s kids shine, HE shines! True humility is correctly understanding Who made you wonderful. Its not thinking of yourself as less. It’s thinking less of how you see yourself, and thinking in congruence with how He SEES of you!

If the King of kings made you His masterpiece, and you are His Hope of Glory, you can bet the King only puts His best work forth to fulfill His goal. When a masterpiece shines, the creator gets all the credit! I never heard of any artist getting credit when his masterpiece puts itself down, or hides itself out of fear of looking too splendid. We need to be the best version of us, that way God can get all the credit for showing the world how Wonderful He is in us!

There is an unseen battle in which the enemy’s plan is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).  His strategy is to make His glorious ones (us) believe that we are less than He has created us to be. He plots to plague us with lies, fears, insecurity, compairison, feelings of worthlessness that make us believe we are hobos in a world that we were meant to be royalty (I Peter 2:9).

It reminds me of my kids’ favorite movies, Wreck it Ralph. Princess Vanellope was lied to and convinced that she was a mistake or a ‘glitch’ in a video game world in which she was created to be the ruling authority! We must not let the enemy deceive us as the villain of this movie deceived Vanellope!

Don’t keep your head down in fear of people thinking you think too highly of yourself. God sees your heart. He knows what area you need to lay before Him. As you stay totally dependent on Him,  ask Him to remove anything in your heart that would take His place as your main source of worth and confidence. He will show you what to lay down! Put on thankfulness for all the talents, gifts, strengths that HE placed in you, and give Him your best so you can be your best for His name!

True Humility and a healthy self awareness is knowing that everything amazing about you is FROM Your AMAZING CREATOR and not you. LOVE WHAT HE LOVES- That is HIS MASTERPIECE, YOU!

Think like He thinks. His thoughts about you are more than all the grains of sand (Psalm 139:18). Connect with His thoughts about you everyday so you can see what He sees in you! When this happens, you will fulfill every purpose He has for you and His confidence will carry you.

The Masterpiece of you is revealed when you find His fingerprints taking all our strengths and flaws and turning into a beautiful piece of art. We truly become glorious when the world sees His strength working even amidst our weaknesses!

Our ‘weakness’ doesn’t mean you give God your very least, or you believe you are just simple pathetic you. It means you are strong enough to admit that even with the greatest strengths He deposited within, you still have a desperate need to depend on an Amazing God others say they can’t see.

I was aware I could sing. But I was never aware of what He thought of my voice. If I’m going to love what He loves, I have to treat it with the same value and love He has for my voice.  I will accept and align my thought to His. I am the only one who will ever have the voice He gave me. I can see Him radiant with joy and tears when I sing! We have to take time to meditate and experience God’s love being expressed over us or we will never ‘see what He sees.’

He recently led me into repenting to my voice. When someone is harsh toward you don’t they owe you an apology? I was harsh and rude to my voice and I had to apologize and ask it for forgiveness. I have learned to repent to my voice (and every other body part, and aspect of me that I’ve hated on). I saw the Lord take the stick I had used to beat myself up with for not being good enough. He then handed it back to me. When I looked down at it again, it was a beautiful scepter He wanted me to use to rule and reign over every lie I have faced and others are facing.

Knowing (and believing) who He had in mind when He made you will change everything. The only one in the way of knowing how He thinks of you is- you! Simply ask Him what He thinks of you. Believe what He says in His Word, and believe what He whispers to your heart.  When you know how He sees you, you WILL keep your HEAD UP, and YOUR CROWN WON’T SLIP!