Many years ago, someone shared a secret with me. They told me, “If you allow people to validate you, you are also allowing people to devalue you. You will always be a failure in some person’s mind somewhere. However, if you allow God to validate you, your identity will be sure – unmistakable, unchangeable. He will never devalue you, and you will never be a failure in His eyes, because you will be covered by the righteousness of His Son.”

I took that to heart, but I did not realize how much I still needed to hear it, understand it, and believe it. To allow God to validate you does not mean that you will never stumble, fall, and yes, absolutely fail in your attempt to please Him. What it does mean, is that everything you do is now accomplished for a higher calling. In essence, the way people measure success no longer matters to you. A Fancy title, a good paycheck, popular friends, and nice things no longer appear on your list of “needs” in order to be a success. Instead, you are already one, because of what Jesus Christ did for you two thousand years ago on the cross.

Not only are you a success, but you now have a different mentality about what a “great work” is. Doing great works for the Lord is a God-given desire for every Christian. However, that often get’s translated as “I complete the whole project, and get all the credit, because I just furthered God’s kingdom in some major area.” After this assumption is made, if you only get to contribute a small portion to that project, and are joined by others who may be more able, you write it off as a failure, and find yourself feeling insignificant, and not needed.

This is not the way God designed His work to be done. Over and over throughout the New Testament, Paul writes about how we as believers are all one body, fitly joined together, with different gifts that need to compliment each other to accomplish the greatest possible works for the Kingdom of God. Every one of us needs to look back at where we came from – slaves to sin and death – and realize that as unworthy as we are, we have the privilege to serve God. If he allows us one tiny part in a Kingdom Agenda Project, it is a miracle of mercy. And the most amazing part of it all, is that He delights to give His secrets to us, and impart to us the ability to do great works! Ephesians 2:10 says that we were actually pre-ordained to do great works! However, they are not for our glory, nor achieved in and of ourselves. They are the product of the Master-mind of Christ working through us, to achieve the best results for His glory.

Dear believer, look up to Him. Keep yourself in the love of God – abide in the truth. Allow God to keep you – protect you, and watch over you. For we are weak, and unstable, unsightly, without ability on our own. Yet He is all in all, desiring that we should be partakers of His glory by allowing Him to work through us in however small or great of a way He chooses. Let your expectation be upon Him, and know that in His eyes, you are lovely because He has made you so!

~Hannah