Celebrating Others

If you have been around me at all, one thing that you know is I love celebrating my people. I think my people are the best in the world, and I think that they deserve to be highlighted for the greatness that God has placed in them. I will always call out the greatness in the people around me, because I know in the depths of who I am, God would want them to know the greatness He placed inside of them.

One of the things I have learned through hearing God’s voice at Wesley is that every single good thought we think, about others or about ourselves, comes from God’s perspective. God is all good, all the time, meaning God only thinks good things about His kids. Notice I said this about God’s kids, not about our actions. We need to separate our worth that is based in our identity from the “worth” we associate with our actions. Our identity is sealed in God’s goodness. Therefore, any good thought that we have about another, whether it’s about how good of a job someone did on a project, how kind they are, how thoughtful, etc., it all shows us an expression of how God thinks of them.

One thing that I have always struggled with is comparison and jealousy, whether it is on social media or different accomplishments. I love succeeding and being the most accomplished person I can be. In my mind, I was constantly thinking, consciously or unconsciously, that if someone else succeeded that took away from my success. It was so unhealthy and God had to break me of it. For such a long time, I associated my worth with how much people noticed me. Yet, the Creator of the universe never took his eyes off me. When you acknowledge other people’s worth, it does not take away from our worth. If you feel like something in yourself is dying when you acknowledge the worth of other people, you need to take that to cross because that is pride. Pride is deadly.

Celebrating others looks like loving them deeply and showing that love and care. Celebration looks different for every person, depending on how they feel loved. I feel celebrated when people remember small details in my life that they don’t have to; like my coffee order. One of my close friends feels celebrated when we spend quality time together. I write her letters to show I’m paying attention when we spend time together. It is all based on the person and how they need to be loved. Celebrating others means honoring the unique expression of God that everyone has. There is a verse that I lean on when I think about how each person displays an element of God differently.

“The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters.” - Romans 8:19 TPT

Think about it this way, all of creation is waiting for you to be the fullest version of yourself. All of creation is waiting on you to fill the space that you were created to fill. The space that you were created to fill is only for you. You cannot take others’ space and they cannot take up your space. If you do not take up the space you were created to, it is just empty space.

 Acknowledging other people’s worth is part of a prophetic perspective that God is instilling in all of us. Hear me say prophetic in the least spiritual way you can. Prophetic people call others into their heavenly perspectives. We call them into the best that God has for them. Prophetic can be corrective but in this context, I urge you to think about it simply as people calling forth what God sees in others. When we call out the best, we give people the space to walk into who God created them to be. Prophetic people call down Heaven on Earth; that is one of the reasons God instructed us to pray on Earth as it is in heaven. We call forth the good as if it is already there. In the Gospels, Jesus called Simon Peter a rock long before he was stable enough to be the foundation of the early church. He called forth what he knew was already there.

We have so many standards and voices in society telling us who and what to be. It is our duty as sons and daughters of Christ to call identity into people. We are the Church, we are meant to rely on each other; iron sharpening iron. We are not small, insignificant participants in life. We are the body of Christ. We are all meant to be powerful, lifting each other up to reach our fullest potentials. When one part of the kingdom grows stronger, we all grow stronger. This is the mindset that builds the kingdom up. We are meant to be a holy priesthood of believers, set apart to display the wonders of the God of the universe.

Author | Cristina Rosiles