How God Sees You

How does God see you? Look into the word of truth to see. Then, you will understand who you really are. The word of truth is your Bible. God gives you understanding through His word of truth. The Bible reveals how God sees you.

See yourself as someone who has sinned against God. You may not like to think of yourself as a sinner, but the mirror shows only the truth. All of us can say, "I have sinned." To sin is to miss God's goal for your life. That goal is to bring glory to God. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Don't stop now. Look into the word of truth again. See yourself as someone whom God loves. See yourself at the cross of Jesus. See that He died in your place and for your sins. That's how much God loves you. There is no way that you could be loved more. You can say, "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Now, look into the word of truth one more time. Understand that your life has purpose in Christ. You are a new creation in Christ. God has work for you to do. He has plans for you. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them"(Ephesians 2:10).

When You Trust Christ

"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" (Ephesians 1:13). Trusting Christ is faith in Him based upon the gospel. It is your salvation in Christ. That word salvation means deliverance. Christ delivers you from the condemnation, guilt, and shame of your sins. He delivers you from all the powers of darkness in your life.

Salvation is received, when you trust Christ. Salvation is your deliverance from spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1), the condemnation of your sins (Romans 8:1), and the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). He does for you what you could never do for yourself. 

When you trust Christ, your life is changed. For He alone can change you, "that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:12). Your life brings glory to Christ, because He is doing in you what you could never do for yourself.

When you trust Christ, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). The Spirit of Christ indwells every believer (Romans 8:9). Christ works in you through the Holy Spirit. You have received the three abiding gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

How Salvation Is Applied

Charles Spurgeon wrote, "I never knew one who could put his hand on his heart, and say, 'I believed in Jesus without the assistance of the Holy Spirit." Spurgeon understood clearly that the Holy Spirit applies the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. According to the Bible, faith is an abiding gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13). Without the Holy Spirit, salvation cannot be applied to anyone.

Without the Holy Spirit, we would never see our need for Christ. His work is to convict us of the sin of unbelief, that is not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:7-11). He convinces us concerning the truth of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, guiding us into all truth. Christ is the truth (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit leads us to know and understand the truth of Christ.

Without the Holy Spirit our hearts cannot be changed to have a personal relationship with God through Christ our Lord. The heart of man is his mind, will, and emotions. Christ lives in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).

Without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we cannot truly understand the gospel. Without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we are unwilling to believe the gospel. Without the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we have no remorse nor sorrow for our sins. By the Holy Spirit salvation is applied.

Walking with God

Walking with God is not a strange mystical experience reserved for only a few. To the contrary, walking with God is the normal Christian experience. It is the birthright of every born again believer in Jesus Christ.

Walking with God is walking in the light. "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Walking with God is daily fellowship and communion with Him. That involves talking to God in prayer, and God speaking to us through the words of Holy Scripture.

Walking with God is by faith. He welcomes us to walk with Him. Only by faith can we experience God daily. "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). The natural eye cannot see God, but the heart of faith knows fellowship with God always and everywhere.

Walking with God is walking with love, that leads us everyday and all the way. Love will walk with us on the right path. Love will walk with us through every valley. Love will keep us all along the way. "And walk in love as Christ has also loved us" (Ephesians 5:2). This love of God comes only as a gift of the Spirit poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:5). It is an abiding gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 13:13).

God's Gift to You

Grace is God's gift to you (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is given as unmerited favor from God. That means you will never earn it nor deserve it. Grace gives all that you receive from God. Grace can never be bought, earned, nor achieved through personal effort (Romans 11:6).

Grace from God the Father is always freely given. He is the God of all grace. Grace gives you life, abundant life, and life eternal (John 10:10; Romans 6:23). So, every believer may say, "But by the grace of God I am what I am"(1 Corinthians 15:10). That's by grace alone.

Grace is God's gift through the gospel of Christ to change your life. Nothing else in all the world can change you but God's grace in Christ. Grace operates directly on your heart, to change you from the inside out.

Grace is God's gift through the Holy Spirit to change your heart (Romans 5:5). The Spirit of grace changes your mind to understand the things of God. Grace changes your will to seek God. Grace changes your emotions to have a tender heart for God.

Grace is God's gift in Christ that you may grow spiritually (2 Peter 3:18). You continue to change toward the goal of being conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Without grace, you cannot change yourself. It's by grace alone. That's grace freely given to you by faith in Christ alone.

Know God Our Father

Know God our Father, the Creator ruling as Lord over all. To say God rules over all is simply to say that God is God, beside whom there is no other. God is omnipotent. He has all power in heaven and earth (Psalm 115:3; Romans 11:36; Revelation 19:6).

Know God our Father fully revealed in the character, teaching, and mighty works of Jesus Christ. God the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world and the Lord over all. He came only to do the Father's will (John 5:19). The life of Jesus reveals the express likeness of who God is (Hebrews 1:3).

Know God our Father's love (1 John 4:8, 16). Any theology that is silent toward God's great love for us in Christ has missed the mark. God is love and the Father's love is for sinners (Romans 5:5-8). God loves all people everywhere (John 3:16). God the Father rules over all in love, justice, righteousness, grace, and mercy.

God is not a terrible tyrant, nor a merciless monarch. Know God our loving Father. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Father to all who know him through faith in Christ (Galatians 4:6-7). Yet, God's fatherly nature is revealed to all through common grace, such as creation, fruitful seasons, patience toward those who need to repent, and in sustaining life (Acts 17:24-25).

Why Do We Praise God?

"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Hebrews 13:15).

We praise God because He has power over all our circumstances. "It's amazing what praising can do." The Bible tells us that Paul and Silas praised God in prison (Acts 16). They were set free and a man, as well as his family, were saved and baptized. God responds to the sacrifice of praise.

We praise God because He is good. It may seem strange to you to praise God when everything goes wrong. Most of us reason that you only praise God when things are going your way. However, believers should praise God all the time, and that includes the bad times. Praise recognizes that God is good all the time, even in the bad times.

We praise God because He changes not. In times of trial and testing, our praise to God recognizes that He is forever the same. Your life situations may change oh so fast, but our God changes not. His love, mercy and grace is constantly there for you.

We praise God because He rules over all. Resolve to praise God when you understand, and when you don't. Even when everything goes wrong, we continue to praise God. We say to God, "Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever" (Psalm 145:2).