Take Two Steps

Bible Reading: Acts 2:42-47

They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer. Acts 2:42

No matter how Armani compared himself to others, he fell short. He wasn’t as strong as William. He wasn’t as smart as Emmy. He didn’t live in as nice a house as Megan. He had nowhere near as many friends as Gabriel. Even though Armani thought long and hard, he couldn’t think of a single kind thing to say about himself.

One day Armani drew a self-portrait. He pictured himself with scraggly hair and crooked teeth. Big blemishes covered his face from chin to forehead, and a huge hairy mole topped off his nose. And in his picture, Armani was totally alone. At the bottom, he labeled his drawing “The Total Loser.”

That was three years ago. Since then Armani has found Christian friends who are into studying the Bible. They’re also nuts about just being friends. Armani’s new friends have helped him recognize what he is really like. Armani has discovered that God sees him as a wonderful, gifted person inside and out.

God has a simple two-step program for you to get his true view of you:

Step 1: Get into God’s Word. You study all day long at school. So the last thing you might want in your life is more study time. Yet if you want to uncover what God thinks of you, your first step is to get into God’s Word. The Bible is God’s book of absolutely true facts about you.

Step 2: Get godly friends. God’s family is where we can learn to treat each other as lovable, valuable, and capable. Getting together with other believers is how we experience the truths of God’s Word day by day.

See, God wants to use his Word and other Christians to make us doubly sure we are loved, valued, and useful. There’s no better way to discover how God sees us than to dig into his Word. And there’s no better way to pound that truth home than to have caring believers remind us how God sees us. It’s one thing to learn the truth about God and ourselves in the Bible or a sermon or a Sunday school lesson. The truth is even more real when we experience it through believing friends.

God wants you to grow more and more sure that you are lovable, valuable, and capable. But it’s your job to put yourself in the right spot. He’s given you his Word to teach you and his people to reinforce that message. When you get those two things, you’ll get his view of you!

TALK: Are you in a Sunday school class, youth group, or Bible club where you get the wise teaching and godly friends you need to grow in God’s view of you?

PRAY: God, help us do what we need to so we can grow in our understanding of who you say we are.

ACT: Do you need to latch on to godly teaching—or godly friends? Go for it!