An old man of God once said to me, “No one can change God’s opinion about you but you.”
In the end, that is the only thing that matters: what is God’s opinion about you and me?
The issue is not what other people think about us.
Nor is it what we think about ourselves.
The only issue is what God thinks of us.
He is the ultimate and final Judge, and His verdict is all that counts. Better still, He desires to bless us. He delights in showing mercy. He looks for opportunities to forgive. He would rather acquit than condemn.
This is amazing news.
And, to repeat, no one can influence His opinion about you other than you. He knows the facts perfectly. He knows our lives completely. He knows all the surrounding circumstances intimately. And that means that all our attention, all our effort, all our focus, needs to be on one thing and one thing alone: submitting ourselves fully to the will of God.
I encourage you, then, to humble yourself in God’s sight. To embrace His correction, however it comes and through whomever it comes.
Get low in His sight and say, “God, whatever You want to do in me, whatever You want to change in me, whatever You want to adjust in me – show me, and give me the grace to repent and make things right in your sight and in the sight of people...”