Look At Yourself Through Heaven’s Eyes

Here’s a statement that might make you think: How we view ourselves will always have a greater impact on us than how we view God.

Think about it. How do you view God?

Now, in comparison, how do you view yourself?

More than likely, how you view yourself determines how you live your life. In other words, no matter what you’ve heard or read, or even positively believed about God, when you stand in front of your mirror, what you think about yourself has a greater impact on your life.

Children of God (or Grasshoppers?)

In the Book of Numbers, chapter 13, we find a good illustration of this tendency. God said to Moses, “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel” (verse 2). His directive was clear. God wanted tried-and-true leaders to spy out the land He would give them as an inheritance. He didn’t ask Moses or the people to judge the land or its current inhabitants to see if they could or could not take it. His request for them to scout out the land was simply so they could see it for themselves. yet when the twelve spies returned from their mission, only two believed God’s original word. The others all said, “There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak…); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight and so we were in their sight” (verse 33). Notice that how they viewed themselves overrode what God had said and promised to them.

The same is still true today. In fact, I dare say this story even gives us a good percentage of how many people wrestle with issues of self-worth: ten out of twelve. I believe it’s entirely possible that more than 80 percent of the population struggles with insecurities, self-doubt, and inferiority issues. Now, how many of those are Christians—children of God?

The Bible contains numerous descriptions of God’s love for us and how He sees us. I once heard someone say, “God’s greatest joy is to be believed. His greatest pain is to be doubted.” God desires for us to understand and accept His promises for ourselves, but sadly, just as God’s children judged the promised land, many people judge the person they see reflected in their mirror based on how they feel and what they think, instead of what God has said. Instead of believing God’s Word, they determine they are “like grasshoppers” in their own sight, and thus, must be in God’s sight.

Kenneth E. Hagin once made this statement: “you see, a lot of times, our thinking is wrong. It’s not in line with the Bible. And if our thinking is wrong, then our believing is going to be wrong. And if our believing is wrong, then our talking is going to be wrong. you’ve got to get all three of them—your thinking, your believing, and your speaking—synchronized with the Word of God.”

This is so true of a large majority of the body of Christ. We don’t realize our thinking isn’t in line with God’s Word. Jesus said it’s not hard to determine what we believe: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). All we have to do is listen to what we say and we’ll know what we believe. The spies revealed their belief system when they said, “We [are] like grasshoppers.”

Wrong thinking leads to a wrong belief system; a wrong belief system leads to wrong speaking, and this is where we get in a mess. Jesus said if a man “believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23). We prefer to look at this scripture in the positive, but it doesn’t read “you’ll have only the right and good things you believe and say.” Unfortunately, it works in the negative as well. every word we speak strengthens and empowers our belief system—right or wrong.

Sealed Fate

I once heard a story about a young boy who had caught a handful of crickets and put them in a wide-mouth jar. Inside the jar he placed your typical “cricket supplies” such as grass, flies, and berries. Then he put a lid on the jar with several holes punched in the top for air. Immediately, the crickets began jumping hysterically, trying to get out of the jar, only to hit the lid and bounce back down. This behavior went on for a couple of days and then suddenly stopped. Contrary to their previous behavior, the crickets became content within their jar, moving about inside it, eating and adapting to their new surroundings.

When the boy removed the lid, the crickets didn’t notice. Curious to see what would happen, he left the lid off the jar but the crickets never tried to escape. Before, they had tried to get out, only to be beaten down. Now that they could leave, they contently stayed. Why? Because in the process of time, they had programmed themselves to believe their fate was sealed.

Many of us are like these crickets.

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” In other words, be careful what you believe. If you believe you are a failure, an outcast, or unworthy, you will believe your jar is your fate, when in reality it is nothing but a barrier to the truth.

“Keep (or guard) your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (emphasis added). Whatever belief system you put in your heart is what will come out. And whatever comes out of your heart is the picture you’ll believe. For example, when the crickets no longer believed there was an escape, they stopped trying to find one.

In the same way, others can tell you the truth and even point to freedom, but if you don’t believe it, you will never attempt it—no matter how good it sounds. I’ll remind you again: “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

The Hebrew word for “issues” in Proverbs 4:23 is literally translated as boundaries or controlling factors. So the Psalmist is saying, “Keep (or guard) your heart with all diligence, for out it spring the [boundaries or controlling factors] of life.” When someone beats us down with their words or treats us with contempt or prejudice, we tend to fight back, at first. But over time, the fight can get tiresome, and little by little, we begin to adjust our life to fit within the lie. The words and actions of others, and then our own words and actions, build an invisible prison.