Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “God sees you as you can be, not as you are.”
“The Pygmalion Effect” is a version of the theory of the “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Pygmalion was a figure from Greek mythology. He was a sculptor and he created a statue of what he considered to be the perfect woman. Day after day he studied his statue and thought deeply about the kind of woman she would be if she were real. He fell in love with the image of the statue and found himself longing for a real woman who would be a live version of his perfect woman. Well the gods favored Pygmalion by bringing his statue to life, and Pygmalion’s longing for the perfect woman became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It turned out that there was a real perfect woman hidden deep within the statue.
In the early 1900s the poet and writer George Bernard Shaw wrote a play about the self-fulfilling prophecy. This time the story revolved around a professor by the name of George Mason. George contended that what a person believed to be true about themselves would ultimately determine what actually was true about them. To prove his theory, George conducted an experiment with a poor, uneducated young woman by the name of Eliza Doolittle. George told her that deep within herself she was actually a beautiful, cultured, dignified lady of high society and if she would just allow him to help her bring those qualities out, it would transform her life.
Eliza was doubtful at first but she went along with the experiment. Over time George trained Eliza to conduct herself like a high society lady. As Eliza began acting that way, she slowly came to believe it to be true of herself. And the more she believed it to be true, the more she acted that way. Long story short, one day Eliza was presented to British high society and everyone was awed by this beautiful, charming, cultured lady.
What you believe to be true about yourself matters very, very much. More than that, what God knows to be true about you matters very, very much. You may see yourself as a hapless, uneducated Eliza Doolittle, lacking in self-confidence and expecting little of your life. God sees you differently. God sees you as the person you can be, not as the person you are.
Jeremiah 29:11 is just one of numerous passages which remind us that God is in the process of slowly transforming us into the men and women He intends for us to be. He is in the process of sanding off the rough edges of our personality, purging the sinful habits we used to engage in and which were so repulsive to others, and He is bringing out of us the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control).
As God looks at us He sees the beautiful person within, and He is at work bringing that beautiful person into being. So when He assures us in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has a great future in store for us, He’s thinking of what lies ahead for us as He continues to mold us and shape us into the person He knows we can be.
God is doing great things in you, and He has great things in store for you. Believe it. And then let that great truth determine your attitude about yourself.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 