Don't Let Other People Define Who You Are

 Sunday 20th June 2021

Before I begin, I would just like to say a Happy Father's Day to the fathers and all the future fathers out there. 

And if you don't have a father anymore, just remember that God is your father, he always has been and he always will be. He is the best father you could ever receive. I hope you have a wonderful day ahead.

I have officially finished the John 15 analysis I had done earlier, and I know I said that I would talk about temptation, but this crossed my mind instead.

The order I'm going to be doing things in is

- Temptation

- Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses

- Psalms 119 Analysis (all 176 verses)

- The thirty wise sayings in Proverbs

- Ecclesiastes

These are what my next posts are going to be about.

I already have these analyses down somewhere. I'm just copying and posting them really, however if I added something, I will write in a  different colour.

But for now, the topic for today is Don't Let Other People Define Who You Are

God said I should post this (not related to John 15 though) so here we are 

*Don’t let other people define who you are*

I had this daydream (and quite continuously too, maybe God is foreshadowing a future event but I’m not sure) where someone started a rumour about me. 

I don’t know what it said but I know it wasn’t true and everyone was giving me a dirty look. The old younger people pleasing me would have cared what these people had thought so would have probably ran off somewhere crying but not this me. 

I just ignored them and continued doing my own thing and kept focusing on God. I let them keep staring and judging me without even knowing anything about me. 

People will judge you but you don’t have to listen to them. Psalms 84:10 says 

10 A single day in your courtyards is better than a thousand anywhere else. I would rather guard the door of the house of my God than live in the tents of sinful people.

I would rather have a million enemies and God be happy with me than than other way around. When someone says something bad about you, it reflects them, not you. 

Critics are everywhere. Constructive or not. 

For example, I like to dance

. 

In public? Not really... or it depends in who's watching.

The thing is with me, I can't dance on the spot, unless it's to a song that I already know a dance to. If it's not, then I'd probably just end up repeating moves I've already done before. I rarely care what people think, dancing in public it's just not something I'm comfortable with (yet).

But in private, yes - I love dancing in private. And I have tried learning a few dances on YouTube, I've learnt some of what I wanted to learn but not all.

So if I post a video of me dancing on WhatsApp for example, which I have done once before, and someone criticises me saying something like 

"No offence, but I've seen better"

Do you know what I would say to this person?

"You know what? I may not be the best at what I do, but I enjoy doing it. I'm passionate about it and that's all that matters. I'm not even striving to be the best anyway. I'm just striving to improve."

People normally criticise you out of jealousy. As Christians though, we shouldn't bring other people down to make ourselves feel better. People of faith don't do that. We should aim to build each other up when possible.

Am I the best dancer out there? No, of course not. There are many people out there that are better than me.

Striving for the best is wonderful, don't get me wrong. But I'm not like this anymore; I'd rather just be better than who I was before. Besides, there's a difference between a hobby and a career.

I’d explain my situation to them, and if they have a problem with it then so be it. I don’t live to please them. Don’t let other people define you. 

Now I'm going to talk about how...

With the help of God I was able to think of five reasons how you can do this, and they are as follows (in no particular order)

1. Remember that only God can truly judge you at the end of the day 

You can have a thousand and one Haters in your life even if you’re not a bad person but at the end of the day, all of our final outcomes are the same. Death. 

When you’re gone, you forget those that loved you or not. The opinions that people say about you won’t matter anymore and only God’s does because he determines if you end up in Hell or in Heaven. Not other people. 

2. Remember that the things of this world and the people there are temporary 

This is basically what Ecclesiastes 2 has been talking about. How everything is meaningless in this world. 

Except the word of God.

Ecclesiastes 1:2 also says vanity of vanity, says the preacher. Vanity of vanity. Everything is vanity.

Solomon said this even though he had everything. For him to say that means that we really shouldn't love the world and what's in it.
I kind of made my own rhyme about  it

Almost everything is vanity
Loving the world's against humanity
Don't be tempted by the devil
Because he's filled with insanity

The only thing that doesn’t pass away even if Heaven and Earth does is God’s word (Matthew 24:35)

Someone may criticise you and in five months time you never hear from them again. They don’t necessarily need to have died. They could still be alive. 

Either way people’s opinions of you can always change although you shouldn’t let them get to you. God’s opinions of you never changes. 

Plus it’s always good too. 

Someone could like you one minute and hate you the other For no reason. It’s during the worst time of your life that you see the true colours of those that say they care for you 

Don’t waste time trying to prove your worth to someone who can’t see it. 

People can go cold on you without reason. Or maybe they’re going through something but even then, you at least deserve an explanation 

With someone ignoring you for no reason and you’re not sure why because you haven’t offended them 

This is probably a sign from God that he’s trying to remove them from your life. But if you’re unsure, you can try and talk to them but if they still ignore you then don’t waste your time. 

3. Remember that if someone says something bad about you, it reflects them and not you 

Some people just hate you. Even when you haven’t done anything for them to hate you. They just hate you, and that’s fine. 

They could even hate you for something that’s beyond your control for example they could feel insecure around you because you’re prettier or more attractive than them. Can you control this? No, you can’t 

Sometimes people can hate on you silently but other times they make it explicit. If they make it explicit, then it has nothing to do with you and all to do with them. 

Beware though. Some people are nice to you even if they’re jealous of you. Fake friends are everywhere. 

For example if a so called friend is nice to you but when they’re around others, you don’t exist in their eyes then don’t waste your time on them. 

This is when you don’t even do anything wrong by the way. If you did something wrong then that’s a different story. 

Also know that that’s not about you. It’s about them. It’s sad how some people have one good friend alone but when they’re with others that good friend doesn’t exist 

4. Remember that the devil can oftentimes send people to bring you down - aka your haters and critics. He doesn’t do this by accident 

Do you think haters and critics just come into your life coincidentally? No, the devil most likely plotted them beforehand. 

He sees you doing well, even when you may not me and he thinks 

“I’m about to ruin this whole Person’s career”

By sending someone to hate you. 

John 10:10 I believe says the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. 

By believing what people say about you, you’re letting the devil win. Don’t do that. 

5. Remember that people hated on Jesus but he still overcame regardless 

Jesus had countless haters before he got crucified. But he didn’t let them get to him, he still died on the cross for our sins either way. 

You shouldn’t let them get to you either. 

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That's it for now, thank you so much for reading. I really appreciate each and every single one of you being here. It really means a lot to me and I don't take any of you for granted. Stay blessed
Lola