Reflect Your True Self

Jesus says: “Anyone who has seen me has seen God.  . . . The words I say to you, I don’t speak on my own.  God within me does the work.”

John 14:9-10

Notes for Contemplation as You Use this Devotional:

• In this mystical passage by the Gospel Writer called John, from the section sometimes titled, “The Way, The Truth and The Life,” Jesus advises the disciples to know God and God’s essence within them. He explains that they and anyone else who has seen him and witnessed his works has seen God in expression.
• Jesus is a master teacher and wayshower for so many people because he lived most fully from his divine, God essence. He was one with God, and everything he did was God-guided. He repeatedly taught others to know this same essence within themselves, not to behold it only in him.  So, rather than making Jesus a great exception—the only one who can be this way—let him be a great example of what you can do to live from your divinity.
• In today’s multi-faceted, nonbinary, AI-driven world, you risk compromising this divinity when you look outside yourself for appreciation, recognition, and spiritual identity. But when you know you’re divine, all your energy and intentions are directed in practical, life-affirming ways.
• To know and reflect your true self, your divinity:
  • Be grounded in the present.
  • Develop (if you don’t have one already) a contemplative practice for being alone with your thoughts and feelings, and listening to your own still, small voice, your intuition.
  • Claim responsibility for your life, all the stuff you love and don’t love, too.
  • Honor your self-care by attuning to your body’s cycles and needs.
  • Assess expectations of yourself and those others may have of you.
  • Eliminate negative, unhealthy people, influences, and substances.
  • Create a circle of people who love, appreciate, empower, and encourage you to be who you are.
  • Be honest with yourself, but not self-condemning.
  • Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before now, and grant others that same grace.
  • Choose to be real rather than popular.
• Martha Smock, long-time editor of Daily Word reminds you that when you know you’re as divine as Jesus was, you “do not have to stop and think how to act; you need only follow unhesitatingly the prompting of the God-self in you. Your good, your happiness can be [as] small or as great as your vision permits.”
• Demonstration is your evidence of how well you live your life.You demonstrate—reflect—the true essence of God you are when you know that you’re a unique, divine spiritual being, not a carbon copy of anyone else.

Contemplation Questions:

As you reflect on your life and circumstances, ask yourself:

• What is my vision of myself?
  • List, word map, or illustrate your vision.

• In what ways do I use my energy to:
  • imitate others?
    • List, word map, or illustrate the ways.
  • be true to myself?
    • List, word map, or illustrate the ways.

• When I reflect on who I am, what qualities do I love most about myself?
  • List, word map, or illustrate all those qualities.

• What are my intentions for being (reflecting in the world) my true self?
  • List, word map, or illustrate all your intentions.
  • Then note all you’ll do to fulfill these intentions.

As you use this devotional, know that you’re meant to reflect all that God is, all that was in Jesus and every other great spiritual master.  Honor the truth of you, how you identify, what you do, what you know, and what and whom you love.  Dare to live faithfully and joyfully.  Be who you truly are, so you inspire others to be true, too.

© 2024 – Rev. Jennifer L. Sacks – All rights reserved.

Photo from Shutterstock by Vasin Lee.