But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
—Matthew 9:36

What do you see when you look in the mirror? For multiple reasons, far too many of us don't like what we see. Some of us despise ourselves. I know. For years, my life was tormented with low self-esteem. Even after I became a Christian and had married a great man of God, I felt like a five-year-old girl in a twenty-year-old body. I had been violated for years and was caught in a self-image trap.

But God was looking down from heaven and saw a messed-up Mississippi girl who was like a wounded sheep without direction, protection, or provision. He "was moved with compassion." The word compassion means "an upheaval or a turning of the bowels." When Jesus sees you hurting, it buckles Him over in deep emotional pain. Christ's compassion can reach you where you are, just as it did me, bent over with a painful past. Let Him touch you now!

I have a word for you. You are not beautiful because of your looks or important because of your career—you are special because God lives inside of you. God's Word says that we partake of God's nature through the new birth (2 Peter 1:4). The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11). We receive the Spirit of Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Because we have Christ's nature, we have His blessings and benefits. Jesus became poor that we would become rich, so start claiming your precious promises.

And I need to add this. There is no one like you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13–14). God put you together precisely. You are distinguished, marked, and uniquely you. He has perfectly, genetically, and distinctly put you together. It was God's purpose and plan for you to have your personality, gender, and nationality. Instead of a devalued, hopeless, and helpless feeling that we are nothing and never will be anything ... our heavenly Father gives us love and counts us so valuable that He sent His only Son to die on a cross so we could live with Him forever.

Look in the mirror and declare: "I am not the product of my past or of my environment. I am not who other people say I am. I am who God says I am. I am who God is calling me to be." Thank God and confess it aloud repeatedly, then watch your image take on the image of your Maker and Savior.

Related Texts: 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 139:16; John 6:37; Romans 12:3, 6; Ephesians 1:5; 3:20