Remember when we first met Gideon? He complained to the angel that he was insignificant, a powerless man from a small tribe and clan. Yet after the battle to free Israel, look at how his enemies saw him and his family:
Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “The men you killed at Tabor—what were they like?” “Like you,” they replied. “They all had the look of a king’s son.” “They were my brothers, the sons of my own mother!” Gideon exclaimed (Judges 8:18-19, NLT).
Others saw Gideon and his family as champions with the look of royalty. Yet their thinking, or at least that of Gideon, spoke of low self-esteem and poor self-image. God had to help him adjust his thinking to match the reality of who he was and how others saw him. God may be trying to do the same thing for you.
How do you describe yourself, or at least think of yourself? Are you royalty in God's house, or insignificant and powerless? How would others say they perceive you? Do you know? Do you care to find out? Will you accept what they say if it is more positive than the self-image you have?
Often others can see you and your strengths, which you take for granted. Hearing what they have to say and being willing to adjust your self-image to theirs can be a key to you being more confident in who you are—who God made you to be. Do you want to be like the Gideon we first met or the one we encounter here in Judges 8? The choice is yours, but your goal should be to see you as God does, and that may very well be reflected in what others see that you can't—or won't.
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