Unshakable Hope: Building Our Lives On The Promises Of GodSample

You Are Stamped with God's Image

Some time ago, I videotaped a message for our church. We recruited a film crew and drove to the Alamo. We selected a park bench in front of the shrine of Texas liberty, set up the equipment, and got busy.

Four workers managed sight and sound with lights and cameras. I sat on the bench, trying to remember my thoughts. We must have looked official. Passersby began to pause. Some started to stare. Who is that guy? What are they filming? 

One woman’s curiosity finally erupted into a question that she shouted at me from behind the crew. “Are you somebody important?”

Every soul on earth has asked the same question. Am I somebody important? It’s easy to feel anything but important when the corporation sees you as a number, the boyfriend treats you like cattle, your ex takes your energy, or old age takes your dignity. Somebody important? Hardly. But when you struggle with that question, remember this promise of God: you were created by God, in God’s image, for God’s glory.

From the very beginning, the Bible assumes the existence of God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). That anyone could look at the wonder of the universe and call it a “coincidence” is unfathomable to divine reasoning. For the writers of the Bible, creation is prima facie evidence for the existence of God—an open-and-shut case. Paul said as much to the Roman believers when he wrote, “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20).

Everything that exists gives evidence of God’s existence. The intricacy of the snowflake, the roar of a thunderstorm, the precision of the honeybee, the bubbling of a cool mountain stream. These miracles and a million more give testimony to the existence of a brilliant, wise, and tireless God. 

We read of one of God’s first promises in Genesis 1:26. “God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule.’” Embedded in these words is the most wonderful of promises: God made us to reflect the image of Himself. The God who put the universe in order, created the land and sea, and gave life to the birds and the beasts called His creation good. But it was only after He created Adam and Eve on the sixth day that he called it all very good. 

The heavens above reflect the glory of God, but they are not made in the image of God. Yet we are. God created us to be more like Him than anything else He made. And each of us carries some of the communicable attributes of God. Wisdom. Love. Grace. Kindness. A longing for eternity. We bear the fingerprints of the Divine Maker, because we are made in His image and in His likeness.

You were conceived by God before you were conceived by your parents. You were loved in heaven before you were known on earth. God has no bad ideas. This is God’s plan. This is God’s promise. 

Respond

What does it mean for you to be made in the image of God? How does this promise impact the way you look at yourself? 

What does this promise say about the relationship God wants to have with you? What does being made in God’s image say about your value?

Who in your life do you need to recognize as being made in God’s image? How can you better treat this person as God’s image-bearer?