Jesus Was Underrated In His Own Town

The people who have known you longest are often the hardest to convince. You share something you are genuinely excited about and get back a flat "that's nice." Jesus dealt with exactly this.

Luke 4:24 says, "And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country." His neighbours had watched Him grow up around a carpenter's workshop. They knew the address, so they assumed they knew the man, and they missed the Messiah standing right in front of them.

We do the same thing constantly, to other people and to ourselves. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, "But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." God has never once evaluated you by the surface.

And here is what He sees when He looks at you. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." That is already done. Not becoming new, not working toward new. New.

So when you catch yourself writing someone off, including yourself on a bad day, that is the moment to ask the Holy Spirit what He sees. He lives in you and He is never confused about who you are. Faith here is simply agreeing with what He has already said about you.

The gold in people is usually buried under something ordinary. Somebody has to be willing to look past the ordinary and call it out loud. Be that person this week, starting with the face in your own mirror.