Images

I am my own worst enemy. I chastise myself. Things I know I question, things I don't know I clamor after, things I don't I think I should, and things I should think I don't. I compare myself to others, I compete with them. I drown myself. In pity, in deception, in fear. I think awful things about my past and my future. I worry too much. I spin and spin with lies I hear. I am hard on myself, for no good reason. I am my own worst enemy.

Why?

I do not see myself in the image in which I was created. That is, I do not see myself in the image of God. If I did see myself in the image of God, in the love He's created me in and in me, the picture would be different.

This image of God, and my reflection of it - how do I align them? When I have never seen this God, when I have never looked on His image, where am I to draw that from? It becomes easy to dismiss the need to see myself as Someone I've never seen created me. And then they question - how do I see God should be answered before the other of how I see myself.

Some of the knowledge of the image of God needs to be simply that - head knowledge. The very pillars of scripture tell me who the Son of Man really is. And I need to boldly cling to those truths and make them knowledge in my head and heart. The heart knowledge activates the need for an emotional response that's hard to connect with in a Being you've never seen. Feelings are tangible and God is not. And that's where faith enters. Majority of my response to being created in the image of a Being never beheld comes from faith. This response itself a challenge; faith defines there very art of believing in the unseen. Somehow because I am human and motivated by a combination of these needs for interaction in order to perceive myself the way I was created, this end result wind up being a lot of work. And I quit before it can truly begin...leaving my image of myself hopelessly flawed and incomplete. The best of it comes from the touch of God, which is precious and abundant if only I reach for it. Some days knowledge won't be enough, I will need to feel His touch. And on the days when feelings fade I'll need to rely on the faith that underlines who I am - a child of the Most High, one He loves and has created in His image.

The bottom line is this: to be seen in the image of the unseen is so completely complex. I don't think I will rightly see myself in His perfect image until I meet Him in heaven. But until then, I will make increasing efforts to dispel the lies enemies (either myself or others) attempt to make me believe.

" So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27

"To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?" Isaiah 40:18

Psalm 139