You: God's Original
Oscar Wilde wisely said, "Be yourself: everyone else is already taken."
The fact is, you are uniquely special; God made you that way. His fingerprints are all over you. You are His distinct handiwork, as unique as the individual snowflakes.
God makes no two snowflakes alike – yet each one is a genuine snowflake. You are a genuine original as well; He did not stamp you out by some uniform template. He made you an original, and it is important for you to simply BE who He has made you – your own unique self.
Don't waste your precious life trying to be someone that you are not – someone other than who God has made you. The world (often including family and friends, and even members of Christ's Body!) will often try to mold you into someone other than who you really are. Dare to be that special person that God has made you in Christ – regardless of what anyone else thinks about it!
There is a definite reason that you are who you are. There is a reason that God has made you distinctively different. God has created you the way you are for His Own special purpose and pleasure.
"… You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
Remember that ultimately you have only one Person to please; the One who has made you after His Own design. To attempt to please others is a vicious trap that actually disqualifies you from being Christ's servant.
"… Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10).
Why is this so? Because you can't possibly "please" everyone. If you seek to please men (i.e., trying not to "hurt anyone's feelings," or "upset anyone," or "insult anyone," or "rub anyone the wrong way"; or trying to "make everyone happy," or "do what everyone wants," etc.), then you will end up not pleasing and serving God. Obviously this doesn't mean that you should deliberately seek to displease others; but ultimately, no matter what you do or say, it will meet with someone's disapproval and displeasure, and if you are always worrying about pleasing everyone, the result will be that we will not please God.
If your goal and object are to try to please others you will be held in the constant bondage of their ever-changing opinions, demands, suggestions, likes and dislikes. It is tiring to be trying always to be what others want you to be – to live up to their endless expectations and visions of what they think you should do, and of who they think you should be. The good news is that there is no such pressure with God. God loves and accepts you just as you are; after all, He is the One who made you that way.
Maybe there are things that you don't like about yourself. No worries; you are God's workmanship – His work-in-progress. This leaves no place for self-improvement or self-effort. Rest in Father's wisdom and ability, and learn by faith in Him, to be comfortable in your own skin. This divine process was something about which Paul became confident.
"Being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
Don't let anyone – even yourself – try to push you around. Don't let others try to live your life for you. Everyone has been given their own life to live. No one has the right to live their life and then turn around any try to live your life for you as well. This is not fair to you, nor is it fair to God and His design and work in you. Stop worrying about what others think of you. Stop being anxious about the approval and acceptance of others. Enjoy being who God made you to be.
Bible Students Handbook
Oscar Wilde wisely said, "Be yourself: everyone else is already taken."
The fact is, you are uniquely special; God made you that way. His fingerprints are all over you. You are His distinct handiwork, as unique as the individual snowflakes.
God makes no two snowflakes alike – yet each one is a genuine snowflake. You are a genuine original as well; He did not stamp you out by some uniform template. He made you an original, and it is important for you to simply BE who He has made you – your own unique self.
Don't waste your precious life trying to be someone that you are not – someone other than who God has made you. The world (often including family and friends, and even members of Christ's Body!) will often try to mold you into someone other than who you really are. Dare to be that special person that God has made you in Christ – regardless of what anyone else thinks about it!
There is a definite reason that you are who you are. There is a reason that God has made you distinctively different. God has created you the way you are for His Own special purpose and pleasure.
"… You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
Remember that ultimately you have only one Person to please; the One who has made you after His Own design. To attempt to please others is a vicious trap that actually disqualifies you from being Christ's servant.
"… Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10).
Why is this so? Because you can't possibly "please" everyone. If you seek to please men (i.e., trying not to "hurt anyone's feelings," or "upset anyone," or "insult anyone," or "rub anyone the wrong way"; or trying to "make everyone happy," or "do what everyone wants," etc.), then you will end up not pleasing and serving God. Obviously this doesn't mean that you should deliberately seek to displease others; but ultimately, no matter what you do or say, it will meet with someone's disapproval and displeasure, and if you are always worrying about pleasing everyone, the result will be that we will not please God.
If your goal and object are to try to please others you will be held in the constant bondage of their ever-changing opinions, demands, suggestions, likes and dislikes. It is tiring to be trying always to be what others want you to be – to live up to their endless expectations and visions of what they think you should do, and of who they think you should be. The good news is that there is no such pressure with God. God loves and accepts you just as you are; after all, He is the One who made you that way.
Maybe there are things that you don't like about yourself. No worries; you are God's workmanship – His work-in-progress. This leaves no place for self-improvement or self-effort. Rest in Father's wisdom and ability, and learn by faith in Him, to be comfortable in your own skin. This divine process was something about which Paul became confident.
"Being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
Don't let anyone – even yourself – try to push you around. Don't let others try to live your life for you. Everyone has been given their own life to live. No one has the right to live their life and then turn around any try to live your life for you as well. This is not fair to you, nor is it fair to God and His design and work in you. Stop worrying about what others think of you. Stop being anxious about the approval and acceptance of others. Enjoy being who God made you to be.
Bible Students Handbook
