Amy Carmichael was born in 1867 in a seacoast
village of Northern Ireland. Born into a godly family, she was the oldest
of seven children. When she was only three she prayed that God would
change the color of her eyes from brown to blue. The next morning she ran
to the mirror but her eyes were still brown. She was very sad. Her mother
said that God did answer her prayer. He answered "no."
Many years later she was a missionary in India. Dressed in Indian
clothing, her skin tanned brown, and with brown eyes she looked just like
an Indian and she was very effective in her ministry. Many times she
rescued some children from prostitution and from the dangers of the
temples of India. If she would have had blue eyes she couldn't have done
this.
Bill Gothard, a famous American teacher in his seminar Basic Youth
Conflicts shared 20 secrets for self-acceptance. What do you think
about yourself? Are you happy with yourself? Do you like the way you look;
your face, your chin, your hair, your body shape, your eyes? Do you like
your personality? Do you like your family background; your parents, your
brothers and sisters? Before you were born, if you could have chosen who
your family was, if you could have chosen what you would look like, would
you have chosen it differently than the way God did it? One of the biggest
problems among Korean young people today is what they think about
themselves. Today we will look at five secrets on how to be happy with
yourself. To find out each secret we will ask a question.
1. DID GOD
PLAN YOUR PHYSICAL DETAILS BEFORE YOU WERE BORN?
Psalm 139:16 (NIV) says,
Psalm 139:16 |
"Your eyes
saw my body, even before it was formed. You planned how many days I
would live, You wrote down the number of them in your book before I
had lived through even one of them." |
In
other words, God knew what you would look like before you were born and
He planned it that way. God has a purpose for every detail of your
life.
There are at least 10 things that God has given to us that are
"unchangeable." (1) Our Parents; (2) Our Time in History (Esther 4:4); (3)
Our Racial Background; (4) Our National Heritage; (5) Our Gender (Sex);
(6) Our Birth Order; (7) Our Brothers and Sisters; (8) Our Physical
Features; (9) Our Mental Abilities; (10) Our Aging and Death. God gave you
your height, your bone size, your eyes, nose, and ears, your skin
complexion, your teeth, your hair, your feet, your hands, your sight, your
hearing, your voice, your chin, your body build or shape, your metabolism.
This was all by God's design.
2. IS A BIRTH DEFECT OR
A DEFORMITY A PART OF GOD'S PLAN?
When God created Adam and
Eve they were perfect. But when they disobeyed God both spiritual and
physical deformity, disability and death came into the world. Now God
designed us, He made us so that these things are passed on from parents to
children. It is with this in mind that in Exodus 4:11 God
says,
Exodus 4:11 |
"Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute (the one
who cannot talk), or deaf (the one who cannot hear), or ... the
blind (the one who cannot see)? Have not I the Lord?" |
God
further emphasizes this point in Isaiah 45:9,
"How terrible it will be for anyone who argues with his Maker!... shall
the clay say to him who forms it,' What are you making?'" God
continually allows circumstances to come into our lives to make us more
dependent on Him and more like Jesus.
3. DID JESUS COME TO
HEAL YOU FROM ALL PHYSICAL SICKNESS?
Quoting Psalm 103:3 some
people say that Jesus came to heal all our diseases. But if Christ's
purpose was to heal Christians from all physical sickness, then after a
person becomes a Christian, he would never experience physical death.
We all get sick. We all die. The apostle Paul healed many people; however
(1) he himself had a physical problem (called a "thorn in the
flesh") and three times he begged God to take away this problem but
God didn't (2
Corinthians 12:7-10). (2) Another time Timothy had stomach pains
and Paul advised Timothy to take medicine for his stomach pains. So we
know that medicine also comes from God (1
Timothy 5:23). (3) Another time Paul's friend and co-worker,
Trophimus was so sick that Paul had to leave him behind at the city of
Miletus (2
Timothy 4:20). So we see, even in the Bible, that God does not
heal us from all physical problems.
4. CAN I EVER EXPECT
GOD TO SUPERNATURALLY REMOVE DEFECTS?
One day a young boy pulled
a boiling pan of hot water off the stove. It severely burned his face. For
several years his parents took him to special doctors. But still he had
big scars on his face. Then he heard these secrets about self-acceptance.
He learned that God let him have these scars for a reason. He saw the
scars as marks from God. God was trying to teach him godly character
through the scars. So he thanked God for the way He had made him, and he
especially thanked Him for the scars. Each time he looked in the
mirror he said to himself, "These marks remind me that I belong to God and
not to me." A few years later an amazing thing happened. His face began to
heal. What the doctors could not do, God did supernaturally - after God
had accomplished His purpose in his heart. God can work supernaturally. Jeremiah 32:27
says,
Jeremiah 32:27 |
"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything
too hard for me?" |
As you wait God wants you to concentrate on becoming
like Jesus Christ.
5. DID JESUS CHRIST
HAVE DIFFICULT UNCHANGEABLE FEATURES?
Hebrews 4:15 says
that He can "empathize with our weakness" because He "was in
all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Jesus parents were
not yet married when Jesus was conceived and so some thought he was
"born of fornication" (John 8:41). He was
born at a time in history when wicked king Herod had all the babies two
years old and younger around Bethlehem killed (Matthew 2:16).
His was born as a Jew and the Jews were hated by their neighbors. His
nation was occupied and ruled by Roman soldiers. As a male child he was
expected to become a carpenter like his father (Luke 3:23). As the
oldest son, after his father apparently died, he was expected to take care
of His mother (John 19:26-27).
He was rejected by His own brothers and sisters (John 7:5). There was
no beauty in His appearance (Isaiah 53:2). He
was misunderstood. He was accused of being demon-possessed. His death was
a public shame. But all of these "unchangeable" things were carefully
designed by God to fulfill His ministry and provide salvation for you and
me.
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by Steve Nicholes
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