The Almighty Snap Shot

The Psalmist writes about life several times;

Psalm 39:5 “You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.”

Psalm 102:3 “For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.”

Psalm 144:4 “Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.”

Wouldn’t you agree with me, that life is unspeakably precious and unbelievably short? Since life is so precious and so short – it is really insane to waste it on stupid things… Like being consumed with what other people think about us through our appearances, or walking through life burying all of our hurts and tears– so that you are never able to see the awesome wonder and beauty that God has surrounded you with every day.

Life is too short to be wasted away like this. God made us to love one another to be there for one another, to not hide. Hiding who we are and what we need is a plow from Satan in order to keep us separated ultimately from God.

We really do get caught up with our appearances and we tend to worry about how we are viewed. Worrying about how we look will only distort our view of how God sees us. We desperately need to………

I. Remember Who We Are.

A. Who or what do you see when you look at a snap shot of yourself? Chances are that what you see is distorted… Because we are too critical of ourselves and we see all the flaws and none of the beauty that God has made us with. Chances are that the snap shot you see of yourself is not the real you.

Illustration: How many of us have seen “Disney’s The Lion King?” The star of this story is a lion named Simba. And Simba because of various things he lost sight of who he truly was.

Watch with me in this clip as Simba looks at himself.

VIDEO: “The Lion King”

Like Simba have you forgotten who you are? HAVE YOU – allowed fear to keep you from seeing the real you.

1 John 3:1-3 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,[a]we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

1. Who are you? At this very moment God is looking at you and saying, You are

• My child (a son, a daughter of the King of kings and Lord of lords…

• The One I love

• The One I adopted into my family

• The one I chose before the foundations of the earth were even laid

• The one who though you have flaws and failures are still is worthy of my grace.

• My workmanship, my masterpiece

• The one created a new in Christ Jesus, to do awesome things that will display

my glory to the world.

• You are more

2. Define yourself radically as one Loved by God. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life. Not the appearances that cover up the real you.

3. This is who we truly are. We are not the make-up nor are we the designer clothes we wear. A snap shot will never do us justice; a snap shot will never show the true beauty of Jesus in us. And there’s only one way we can show that inner beauty