We are okay with failure, with struggle, with weakness, but we are not okay with victory, prosperity, or with total freedom and acceptance. That self image that we carry is based on what we believe about ourselves. Those same beliefs determine the limits of our faith.

The only real way we have of altering what we believe about ourselves is to adopt what Jesus had said about us. His views must be our truth, our identity and our destiny. Embracing His thoughts about us raises the ceiling of our capabilities. It replaces our dim vision and understanding of ourselves with that of being God's chosen ones qualified for the grand calling and destiny for which he made us.

He who believes himself a worthless slave and a good for nothing cannot possibly walk as a prince in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He can only aspire to princely life and behavior, can only speak it with his words, but he cannot genuinely assume such a position. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.

The Father takes your face in His hands;
beholds you with a smile wide as the sky,
Then, with gleaming eyes bright as the sun
He speaks to you . . . “My beloved, My glorious one, believe Me."