Lord Jesus, what do You want to say to me about the way You love Yourself and the way You want me to love myself?
Today I want you to meditate on this verse:
“I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works; this my soul knows well” (Psalm 139:).
My darling, I am not calling you to praise yourself, but to praise Me for yourself. It doesn’t say, “I will praise You for I am wonderful,” but “I will praise you for I am wonderfully made.” That “made” is the key word that takes everything wonderful about you and gives all the glory back to Me. I get all the glory for the way you are made, because I made you. I am your Maker.
And that is why everything you say to and about yourself reflects back to Me. You can’t talk to yourself alone, anymore than anyone could criticize one of your poems without criticizing you. You are My poem, My poema, My masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10), and this is a good way for you to understand how I feel about you. When you praise My work in writing you so beautifully, it warms My heart with pleasure and joy. When you dishonor My work or attack it, I feel personally attacked, just as you do if someone attacks your writing. I love you. I love you as a creation, with that special kind of love that only a maker can know.
I am not only calling you to praise Me about other things. Not even just about Myself. I am not just calling you to praise Me because I am wonderful, though I am, but to praise Me that YOU are wonderfully made. That is the form of praise that has been missing in your life. Many people are willing to praise Me for being holy and just in Myself but not to admit that I made them well, or submit to My choices of design. Especially women. Self-rejection is an especially feminine fault. Many women do this, but that is no excuse. I want you to be different and better and teach others to be different and better too, like the psalmist.
It’s as if there is a sick twisted “praise” song that many women’s hearts sing to Me: “You are wise, but the way You made me is stupid; You are great, but the way You made me is insiginificant; You are victorious, but the way You made me is a failure;. You are glorious, but the way You made me is not beautiful. I love you Lord, but I hate myself. I’ll praise You for anything and everything, but not for the way You made me.”
I want you to sing a better song: “I will praise YOU for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, this my soul knoweth right well.” The three adjectives that get applied to you as a work of God are fearful, wonderful, and marvelous. It’s OK to sing like that, and to teach other people to sing like that too.
I am so, so happy that you have repented of not singing Me that song. I am so happy to have the missing piece back in your worship, like a puzzle piece put in, the last piece. It makes everyone so happy when the last piece is put in. It is an honor to be the person to place it in, as everyone watches and cheers. And everyone is so sad when they go to all the work of completing a jigsaw puzzle only to discover that one last piece is lost and can never be put in. I do not want one piece to be missing of your praise and your worship to Me. Not because I need your praise to feel OK about Myself (I don’t), but because I love you very much.
And I’m putting in the last puzzle piece now.
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