Close your eyes and think about your favorite movie, book or song. 

Why is it your favorite? Is it because it’s beautiful, catchy, entertaining or pleasing in some way or another? Most likely, yes. 

But I’m willing to bet on top of it being beautiful and catchy, that movie, book or song, it means something to you. It moved you, caused you to feel or changed you in some way. The knowledge of how awesome it is has moved you on a personal level. 

So, what does this little art theory exercise have to do with God?

I believe part of what is at the core of our issues as Christians is a lack of knowledge about who we are and how God sees us. 

I believe that knowing who we are—who we really are—changes everything. 

But it’s not enough to read the words on a page and let them sit like mossy lily pads on swampy waters. The power and the change happen when, like with the movie, book or song, the knowledge we have in our head begins to drip, drop and slowly fill, and permanently permeate every inch of our heart. The change happens when what you know in your head hits you hard in the soul. 

There is a reason why you should care about what God thinks of you; if you know and care and believe what God has to say, then you will stop believing and caring about what anyone else thinks or says! Do you understand how much freedom is on the line here? Insecurity will become a thing of the past. Fear will be rightly and boldly stamped out. Having a knowledge not just in our head, but in our heart about our identity in Christ puts a new perspective, a new filter, on every aspect of our lives. You can’t be confident in who you are in Christ if you don’t know how you are in Christ, i.e., what does God think about you? 

The Bible is full of stories and letters and poems, many bursting at the seams with beautiful imagery and carefully picked words about who you are, how God sees you and how intimately He loves you. 

5 Things God Thinks About You

1. You are loved. 

God’s Word says that Jesus is the expression of God’s love for us. Do you want to know if you are loved? Look at the life of Jesus! He came down from heaven, where He was seated at God’s right hand, and willingly died for you. Out of such a great abundance of love for you, Christ died. When we know the depth Jesus went to for us, we can know how truly loved we are. 

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13, NIV). 

2. You are chosen and accepted.

Before you chose to love and follow Christ, He chose and loved you first. Before you were born, God knew you, chose you and wanted you. And He doesn’t only want the good parts of you—the parts that go to church on Sundays, that look pretty on the outside or that can put on a Christian mask. He wants the messy, broken, bad parts of us too. 

“…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5, NASB). 

3. You were made by God Himself. 

God made you. He formed you, specifically, in detail, and made no mistake in how He made you. The Maker of the universe looks at you and calls you beautiful. Because Jesus died on the cross, you can be beautiful in the eyes of God. 

No matter how we feel or what we see, when God sees us, He sees His creation. He sees His beloved. You are blessed with just what you have. You are enough, just as you are. And only Jesus can satisfy the craving of your heart to be seen as truly, astoundingly and infinitely beautiful. 

“I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:14, NKJV). 

4. You are called and set apart.

The Bible says God has great plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11). He has given you a mission, a calling, a purpose, a job to do while here on earth. You are not to look like the world looks or seek what the world seeks. 

God sees big and beautiful in the meek and small. He chooses humble, broken and tame people to use for His Kingdom and glory, not the proud, noble and loud. He flips the script on what our logic and reason tell us about who the heroes should be. The things that God values are nothing like what our world values. 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, NKJV). 

5. You are His. 

You are His child! You are His most treasured prize, His greatest love. He wants nothing but to embrace you, to hide you in His arms, to lead you beside still waters, to keep you warm on the darkest nights. If you believe Jesus died to save you and was resurrected—forever defeating death—then you are adopted into His family, forever belonging to Him. 

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:16-17, NKJV). 

How To Know Your Identity In Christ And Be More Confident

Read your Bible every day. When it comes to knowing your identity in Christ, there’s only one place to go to. Start reading and allowing these truths in Scripture to fill your mind with the truth of you who are. Even if you can only commit to 10-15 minutes a day, that will help you start to grow in confidence daily. 

Pray. When you’re driving, showering, cooking or having a quiet moment, you can always go before God in prayer and ask Him to show you who you are and to help you believe it and live from the truth of your identity in Christ. 

Get in a small group or surround yourself with God-like community. Being around others who can help you read God’s Word and reinforce the truth of who you are is so helpful. 

“You are dangerous to the enemy when you value what God says more than the affirmation of others.”

— Brian Simmons 

For further study

Explore:

• The Bible Project: their entire network of videos is so incredibly helpful, but I would suggest starting with their series on How To Read The Bible.
• How Your Quiet Time Should Change You by Jen Wilkin 
• How To Read The Bible For All It’s Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart 
• Don’t Play the Comparison Game | Sadie Rob Huff & Bob Goff on Whoa That’s Good Podcast 

This article was originally titled “Filtered” in the February 2023 issue of Peer.