Be the Best You That You Can Be: Message By Joel Osteen
Too often we’re trying to get our worth out of what we do, how well we perform. We wonder if others think we’re good enough, talented enough, strong enough, or successful enough. We think that if we work harder, outperform our coworker, or outdress our friend, we’ll feel good about ourselves. We live in a proving mode, with a need to impress. The problem is that we’re getting our value from the wrong place. If you don’t know who you are, if you don’t know that you’re a child of the Most High God, you’ll spend your energy trying to get other people to validate you. But when you’re secure in who God made you to be, when you’re comfortable with your gifts, your looks, and your personality, then you don’t go around competing with others. You’re not living to impress someone who’s more attractive than you or jealous of a friend who’s more talented. You know that you’re one of a kind, a masterpiece, made in the image of God.
Take the pressure off. You have nothing to prove. Your job is not to win other people’s approval or applause; your job is to “run the race that God has planned for you” (Hebrews 12:1). Anytime we’re trying to prove something and get our value from others, the root cause is insecurity. Your value should come from who you are, not what you do and not what you have. If not, there will always be a voice saying, “You don’t measure up. You need to be stronger, skinnier, taller, wealthier, more talented, better.” No matter what you do or what you become, it’s never going to be enough. It’s very freeing when you understand that you don’t have to prove to others that you’re good enough.
If you go into the approving mode, trying to outperform someone else, feeling less than because you’re not like that person, all that’s going to do is wear you out and take your joy. You’re trying to prove something that you don’t have to prove. You’ve entered a race that you’re not competing in. Walk in your anointing. You already have God’s approval; you just need to walk in it. You don’t have to keep up with other people. If you’re getting your value out of how you measure up to your peers, you’re going to live in this proving mode of working harder, trying to impress, and that’s a never-ending cycle. Get off that treadmill. You don’t have to be more popular than your friend, more athletic than your brother, or more successful than your cousin. That’s not your race. You’re not competing with them; you’re competing with yourself. Be the best you that you can be.
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Joel Scott Osteen is an American pastor, televangelist, and author, based in Houston, Texas. Osteen has been called the “most popular preacher on the planet” and is often listed as one of the most influential religious leaders in the world.