Broken Self-Worth
What Others Say – Part 2

Scripture Reading: Galatians 2:11-16

Key Verse: Galatians 2:12

Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

Once again I want to return to this story of the Apostle Paul confronting the Apostle Peter.  Peter had cared so much about his image that He stepped back from eating with brothers in Christ who were Gentiles.  Peter wanted to make sure he looked good to the visiting Jews who were coming from “headquarters.”

All of us can relate to Peter’s feelings.  These feelings don’t make us horrible people, but they do make us vulnerable to sinful behavior.  God wants to make us strong in our self-worth, but He must be the source of our self-worth or we will cave to the opinions of others rather than the eternal Judge of the universe!

We must get our minds wrapped around two foundational biblical truths: We were made by God, in His image, and as believers in Christ all things are “new.”  In other words, the negative stuff in our past has been forgiven and removed from us, by our Creator, in the name of His Son Jesus!  We are good (the biblical term would be “righteous”) because of our faith in Christ.  When God looks at us, He sees us as good.  We must start agreeing with God if we want to get away from dependence on what others think of us!  Our worth is not in what we accomplish or our failures.  Our self-worth is given to us by our Father in heaven.

Father, thank you for calling me to be your child.  I will rest in your opinion of me, giving you all the glory and praise as the giver of all good things.  In Jesus’ name, amen.