How Do You Think God Sees You?
Imagine for a moment that you’re out to coffee with Jesus. You’re sitting across the table from him, each of you sipping your favorite drinks. (What would Jesus’ drink of choice be? Fun to ponder…) How does he look at you? What is his posture toward you? Is he smiling, welcoming, listening, supportive? Or is he sitting back with his arms folded, eyes narrowed, studying you and ready to criticize what you’re saying?
If you ran into Jesus at the grocery store (OK, I know this is weird, just humor me), how would he respond? Would he duck into the frozen aisle to avoid you? Would he give you a cursory wave and hello and then move on? Or would he hug you and smile and ask you how your day is going?
I know those scenarios might be strange to think about, but my point is this: How do you think God sees you? How does He feel about you? What is His general demeanor toward you? It’s one of those things that we usually don’t stop and think about it. We just picture God being a certain way to us. But I think it’s vitally important that we DO stop and think about it. How we believe God sees us has a profound affect on how we view ourselves, how we interact with God, our thought life, and how we feel about ourselves.
Where does that view of God come from?
I believe it largely comes from how we think our parents see us. Most of us get our perceptions of God at least in part from our parents. If they treated us with love and understanding, it’s not hard for us to see God that way. But if we felt that they were uninterested in us, or constantly frustrated with us, or that we were in the way, then we’re more likely to think that God feels that way about us.
There are a couple of problems with that. First, those perceptions we had as children might not even be accurate. We might have felt like our parents were always frustrated with us, but in reality, we misread their cues, or there was something else going on.
Secondly, imposing those perceptions onto our view of how God sees us may not be true. God’s Word is our source of truth. As we grow in our faith, it’s helpful to examine these things and see if they match how God’s Word says He sees us.
So how DOES God see us? If you have trusted Christ as your savior, these things are true of you:
1 Peter 2:9 - “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Ephesians 2:10 - “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Zephaniah 3:17 - “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
Psalm 139 - The whole Psalm!
Romans 8:1-2 - “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
Look at the gospels - how did Jesus interact with people? He saw each one as an individual. The people he railed against were the hypocritical Pharisees and the money changers in the temple. He welcomed children. He sat and talked with people. Answered questions. Healed people.
So if Jesus was sitting across from you at the coffee shop, can you imagine the conversation? His demeanor toward you? Can you hear Him saying some of those verses to you?
“You, [insert your name], are a new creation…”
“You are My handiwork…”
“I have searched you and known you…”
I encourage you to dwell on those verses or any others that are meaningful to you and begin to reframe how you perceive that God sees you.