Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God,even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].--Romans 12:2, AMPC

We all know that pride is never good. It's what got the devil immediately exiled from Heaven!

However, the LORD, our Father God (when we have truly accepted Jesus in our hearts as our Savior and LORD; Romans 10:13), takes great pleasure in us, His kids! He has created us to enjoy Him, and reflect His beauty--His love, goodness, mercy, faithfulness, grace, generosity and more--to the world!

Thinking too little of ourselves, as compared to whom and how He created us to be, once covered by the Blood of Jesus the Christ, does not bring Him glory.

He recently convicted me about this, for I was thinking of myself as (and I quote myself!) "a sardine in a fishbowl." I was frustrated with our living arrangements, knowing that my Father, Who created the Heavens and the earth and upholds them by the Word of His power 

"Stop measuring success by what it looks like. You are in the world, and not of it!" my Daddy God exhorted me.

I love my daughter (who has not been perfect, of course), who graduated from university right after high school with a real degree; is now almost 25 and happily married over a year to her best friend of over 10 years (whom she met at church camp--God is faithful, and truly orders our steps!), and who is already investing in a home of her own. We have had our challenges, and some have been very difficult, especially in dealing with divorce, and remarriage--which brought many differing spiritual beliefs, etc. But I have forgiven, and so has she, and the LORD has been working major healing in our hearts. Hallelujah!

By His grace, and especially since she's been married, my daughter and I now see each other properly. We enjoy and take pleasure and celebrate the successes of each other's life; the way it's supposed to be!

Here's my point: When I think of her, I don't remember the junk. If I think of it, it's like a very distant memory of something that happened to someone else--because it did! We are new creations in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17)! Hallelujah! So, when I'm around her and think of her and talk to her, I have great joy, great delight! I am always and only planning good for her, and happy at her happiness. I brag on her often (It just comes up; she is in my heart!), for she has many gifts and talents and skills, and a beautiful heart of compassion, which she has demonstrated many times!

So, if I can think of my daughter (whom I had the deep honor and privilege to lead to Salvation with Jesus, when she was much younger, praise the LORD!) with this much satisfaction and delight, and see her great potential to do great things (which my husband and I pray about and proclaim over her, and know that the LORD is faithful to bring about His perfect will in their lives--especially because I dedicated her to Him in the womb, and publicly when she was three months old, at church, on Mother's Day. Not just because of that, though, but because I have consistently lived and otherwise promoted the Word of God and allegiance to Him throughout my life, during the good, the bad, and the ugly!)--then how much more does our Father God find great delight in us!

His plans for us are always and only good (Jeremiah 29:11; Galatians 3:13-14; Ephesians 2:10 and 3:20; Revelation 2:23), and He sees every part of our lives at once! Thus, He is always working for good what the enemy means for evil, and also what we mess up (Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28)! Hallelujah, what a faithful God we serve!

He sees us as His precious children, and He sees the fullness of our potential! He is so very gracious, and helps us when we even take one little step toward Him, to do His will! (He is our very breath and life, and it is His Spirit that inspires us and motivates us to obey Him to start with! Hallelujah!)

So, the LORD convicted me, by giving me this picture when I woke one morning after a couple days of intense emotional battles (during which--as He's been faithful to do during the years, praise Him!--He showed me the wrong root and how to get victory over it to work with Him to allow Him to pull it out (Matthew 15;13), and brought healing to my heart (Psalm 147:3, Luke 4:18). Hallelujah!

The enemy, who is the condemned, tries to make us, God's kids, feel condemned. But Jesus took and broke the power of condemnation at the cross, praise Him! He became sin, that we might become the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! We can never understand this with our minds, but we believe and accept it by faith, just like we received Salvation, being born again, because this understanding that only in Jesus are we ever right with God, is the core of our relationship and new spiritual status in Heaven!

For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).--Romans 5:17, AMPC

So, just like my daughter is in a covenant relationship with me, to be forever my daughter (because she was born to me, and that relationship will be forever, even if we don't have perfect fellowship), all of us who are born again by faith in the LORD Jesus Christ are forever in relationship with Father God, because when we receive Jesus, God becomes our Father, and Jesus our Big Brother (among many other wonderful things!). We are totally accepted in the Royal Family!

(Just like in any family, there are protocols, and a person can choose to neglect and refute their families and never fellowship with the family, God has expectations too, which are outlined in His Word. However, just like my daughter truly repented for wrongs, and I immediately forgave her and brought her back into close fellowship with me, and only want and plan good for her and think of her as delightful (while not ignoring realities that need improvement--just like with every human), how much more does God see us only through the Blood of Jesus!

Hallelujah!

So, our sin does not change His mind about us!

Just like the picture He gave me that morning--which was a divine flash of a supreme swordfish in the sea--we are much bigger in Him that we could ever be or think of ourselves in our little carnal (worldly; thinking like the world thinks about themselves, when they feel inferior and unable, etc.) minds. He is our Strength and Glory and Joy and Ability! He is our everything!

So let us yeild to Him, and let Him express Himself in wonderful ways, to show this world and us His Glory, that all might come to His beautiful Grace, and be saved!

For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [invoking Him as Lord] will be saved.--Romans 10:13, AMPC So you are not a sardine--you are a swordfish!(By the way, my research on swordfish states that they use their "swords" not to impale prey, but to knock things senseless in their paths! Let us do that with the Sword of the Word in us, amen, and knock the devils "senseless" and out of our paths, in the Name of Jesus! Hallelujah! God loves you, and made you to do mighty things for Him, in this "sea" of humanity! You are strong, and free, in the ocean of God's love and power! So leap up like the swordfish and conquer!

Through books, courses, presentations, service, prayer, worship, and more, Tonja and her husband live to exalt God. Her series for girls, P.O.W.E.R. GIRL ADVENTURES, is now out (books I-V), along with LEGACY; YOUR HOLY HEALTH: VISIONS OF THE KING, and more. See the "River Rain Creative" YT channel.