There’s Nothing Special About You – Sarah Jakes Roberts
There’s Nothing Special About You
Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….
But I’m here now and I wanna share something with you all. I see all of your comments. Whatsapp?
It’s been three long. OK. I’m gonna just keep it 100 with you. It’s been three long.
Um ok, so I see Ashley, I see Takia let me know where you watching from? What’s up?
Uh Tiffy said, oh snap. She’s on the block. She has turned back around for more.
I was live in the Woman Love book club page not too long ago. OK?
Is at N G I feel like it’s been way too long since I’ve seen you.
I know like you would think that we actually know each other the way that I be knowing people on Instagram.
So it’s on Facebook and all of the things because she’s watching on Facebook. OK. Let me see.
All right, hold on. There’s, there’s something happening here that I don’t understand.
I wanna, I wanna share something with you all that I hope will be as helpful for you as it is for me.
Um There are comments just showing up that makes me nervous because I don’t know what people are gonna say.
It’s just showing up on youtube. OK. So here it is.
I got to go pick up my girls from school in a minute, but I want to say something to you that I hope will be um helpful to you because it has been something that I am learning and embracing.
So um I am in full blown preparation for women that are loose. What does that look like?
Preparation for me is like where does my heart need to be positioned? Where does my mind need to be?
Um like God, who’s gonna be in this room? I was doing some work with my therapist.
Come on, shout out to therapy.
And um we uncovered some things that ultimately came down to me being um having difficulty like embracing that.
There is like something special about me. So boom, here’s the back story.
So, you know, growing up, I, I, you know, I didn’t sing. I’m, I’m a church girl, right?
So I don’t sing. I don’t dance. I don’t play any instruments. I don’t have any visible talents.
And a lot of times when you’re growing up, people are like, like, what’s your hobby? What’s your interest?
What do you do? And I’m like, I like to read.
I like to write, but no one is like, oh my gosh, can I see you read?
Um No one’s like, oh my gosh, can I see you write? Like the, it’s not an affirming visible gift.
And so I kinda had ingrained in my psyche. Like there’s nothing special about me.
So I wanna talk for a moment to people who believe that there is nothing special about you.
Maybe you don’t feel like you have the talents that other people have.
You don’t have the gifts that other people have.
First of all, I wanna let you know, like for real, I know how isolating and devaluing it can be to feel like you don’t have anything to offer when so much of our society and culture and family units are designed to really highlight a one thing.
That’s the smart one. She’s, she likes science. She’s gonna be my scientist.
Like there are things that can create distinction and if you’re like me, there was nothing for me.
And um so I just kind of felt like there’s nothing special about me.
And so um in recent years, for reasons that I don’t always fully understand, you know, people have been connected to my voice and, you know, my personality, like it’s not, I don’t know, I don’t know, my, the anointing that God has placed on my life has attracted uh people to whatever it is that
God is doing in my life.
And I still feel like, you know, there’s nothing special about me.
Like I’m just being myself, I’m just being authentic.
And uh the reason why I wanted to have this live is because when I was in therapy and I was, you know, just doing my thing and you know, being honest and transparent about like, you know, what it means to be stepping into the next stage and phase of my life without the assurance of like what my, you
know thing is.
Um I wanna, I wanna say this properly.
I came to the epiphany that I have been trying to find like the thing that makes me special instead of recognizing that it is the entire being.
So if you’re like me, this makes you cringe a little bit because um you start to feel like, you know, oh my gosh, like how could everything about me be beautiful?
How could everything about me be special when I know my past? I know my insecurities.
I know the fears that I’m currently facing. Like how is it possible that everything about me could be special?
And I can tell you a few things that are raggedy, not saying they are raggedy.
But I’m saying that when you mix that raggedy with your personal reality, with your heart, with your desire to connect with God and become an extension of God on the earth when it’s all mixed together, that is what makes you special.
And so I am here to let you know that there is nothing special about you.
There is no thing that is special about you because everything is special, everything about you special.
We need all of the good parts, all of the raggedy parts, all of the parts that make you cringe and even the parts that make you celebrate with joy, every single part of you is amazing.
And if you do not believe me, I’m gonna take it to the text for you. Ok?
So I have my bible here. I’m in Psalm 1 19. I am in verse 73.
This is real fast. Ok? Verse 73. 1st of all, before I jump into this site. Yes.
Let’s take a minute and just accept and receive that. Everything about me is what makes me special. It’s everything.
It’s the confidence, it’s the insecurity. It’s the places that I’m stagnant and the places where I am experiencing progress.
If I deduce myself down to finding one thing that makes me special, I will miss out on the entire thing that God has placed inside of me.
I will miss out on the fullness of what has been placed inside of me.
Every single part of you has the thumbprint of God on it.
Now between when God placed his thumbprint and when your mama had you, your daddy had you, your siblings, your friends, your teacher, your grandparents, your uncles, it’s a lot of things.
It’s a lot of prints on there. I ain’t even gonna lie to you. I ain’t even gonna hold you.
It’s a lot of on there. But guess what?
None of those prints can erase the foundational print of God’s essence. God’s breath.
God’s spirit being a part of what has made you who you are.
And so the hard work that we do in therapy, the hard work that we do in our worship and in our relationship with God is clean my heart.
What does it mean? God for my heart to be?
Remove the thumbprint from the, remove the thumb print from my mom, remove the thumbprint from my dad good or bad.
That could have been good. But God, I wanna experience what it’s like to only have your thumbprint on me because only, you know, every gift only, you know, every talent.
And so how do I get my life reduced down to that thumb print that began with God.
So I there’s so many scriptures that speak to how special we are, right? We all know you are.
Well, maybe we all know sometimes we don’t know. And if you don’t know, that’s all right.
We about to learn today. There’s a scripture that talks about us being fearfully and wonderfully made.
That means that God made us with respect. That didn’t mean you came out looking like a horror show, ok?
Because some of us here fearfully and wonderfully made and we like I get it because this is raggedy.
I would be afraid of me too, bro. Don’t have it together. I would be afraid to.
No, no, no, we are not talking about being made with fear but being made with respect that God said, you know what I respect you.
Oh my gosh. I felt chills just saying that for myself and maybe it’s for you too.
Like God says, I respect what I created. I made it full of respect and I made it wonderfully.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
That means that you can walk with your head held hot because the manufacturer, the one who put you in this earth said that I made you with respect and I made you with worth.
I made you with honor to receive that.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made is the greatest gift that you can give yourself.
That’s one of my favorite scriptures to help me.
Just remember like you are special and let me tell you something. You hear you’re fearfully and wonderfully made.
There’s about 5000 people watching right now between Facebook, youtube and Instagram. Guess what?
Sometimes you like how all of us fearfully and wonderfully met because he took his time with each and every last one of us breathing gifts, breathing talent, compassion, love, respect.
He made us wonderfully. He looked at everything that is you, whether you got one eye too big and the other one too small, whether your edges is on a mission like mine are to come on back.
Whether you got the marks that adventures like God, like I put all of that together to make you uniquely who you are.
Trust me. When I say you’re fearfully and wonderfully made, but there’s another one that I want to share with you.
And it is Psalm 1 1973. And it is just blessing my heart right now.
And it says your hands have made me your hands.
These are God’s hands, your hands have made me and fashioned me like I know you’re right in the middle of your day and I’m almost finished up.
I had to pick my kids if I don’t have time for this either. OK?
But listen, imagine with me for a minute that God is in the kitchen of heaven and he is taking his time to strategically and intentionally make you.
The master craftsman is saying that you have been made in fashion.
You were not just slapped together, you were not just some random conglomeration of whatever God had left over.
No, with a real intentionality. God put you together with his. Oh you hand made baby, you handmade, OK?
Stay focused. You, you are homemade, handmade. There was no mass production little.
Each and every last one of us have been handmade in fashion.
So your hands have made me and fashioned me.
And then this song, as David said, David says, give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
You made me, you put me together. But I don’t, I don’t know how I work.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with what you put together.
And so give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
What did you have in mind when you created me? How do I respond to this trauma?
How do I show up in a space of love you? The one who you’re the one who made me?
Where is this owner’s manual? The owner’s manual comes up in our prayer. It comes up in our worship.
That is when we get to say God, who am I? How do I work?
How do I recover from this? Where is my trouble spots? Where are my temptations? Where are my weaknesses?
You have made me give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. And then this is my favorite part.
And then I’m out of here. OK? 74 says those who fear you will be glad when they see me.
Those who respect you God, those who honor you, those who hold you in esteem will be glad when they see me.
What’s the connection like? Why will they be glad when they see me?
Because if I do this thing called life, right?
If I allow myself to honestly surrender to the fact that I started with God, that I have been homemade, etched and fashioned by the savior that I have had the creator of the universe, decide how I would show up in the world.
And then I begin to lean into the commandments connected to my identity.
When people see me, they gonna be glad because they’re gonna recognize that they’re not just seeing me that they’re seeing the image of God expressed through me and they’re gonna recognize it because the image of God is being expressed through them.
I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know who I’m talking to on this random live from the overflow of my own therapy.
But I want you to know this.
You have been fashioned and if you see any glimpse of God in me, it is just a mirror, a reflection of calling from the depths of your soul to lean into some of you are already leaning into some of you are afraid that you’ll lean in and disappoint God or disappoint yourself or make a declaration that you can’t live by.
No, no, no. We silence all of those voices.
And I say to you that if you are connected to this, if you are randomly seeing this message, it is because it is an opportunity for you to lean into what you see being reflected in me.
I’m continuing to do my work to accept the fact that I have been made in fashion by God, by the creator of the universe, those beautiful mountains that beautiful sky, the waves, the ocean, all of those things that he’s spoken to existence.
He said I’m going to do even better. I’m not just gonna speak you into existence.
I’m gonna fashion you into existence, your inner parts, I’m gonna fashion, I made you sensitive. I made you confident.
I made you powerful. I made you shy. I made you reserved. Why did I do those things?
Because when you lean into my commandments, when you begin to follow the instruction manual, the owner’s manual for how I put you together, other people are going to see you.
Um OK. In the last part of verse 74 this is Psalm 1, 19 verses 73 74.
The last part says because I have hoped in your word.
This is an invitation to hope again, to hope into the word of who God says. You are.
To hope into the word, the truth, the opportunity to fulfill the skeleton of what God fashioned informed by bringing your thoughts into captivity by disconnecting your identity from your past.
And by saying, you know what, I’m gonna trust that you fashion me.
I’m gonna trust that you made me a little off off. I’m a little off the rocker.
I ain’t even gonna lie to you. I’m a little slow. I’m a little crazy. I’m a little mean.
I’m a little angry. I’m a little bitter.
I’m a little of all these things, but I’m also a little bit patient. I’m also a little bit funny.
I’m also a little bit loyal.
All of these things have been made together and when you mix them all together, you become special.
So stop picking yourself apart trying to find the thing that makes you special.
There is no thing that makes you special. It is everything about you that makes you special. God.
Thank you so much for my friends, my fellow partners in this earth who are on a journey to discover how we can show up in a way that brings you glory, how we can show up in a way that allows us to be a solution.
A generational curse breaker, a change agent God. I thank you that.
In order for us to do that, we can’t do it out of performance, we can’t do it from a place of fear and insecurity.
We can only do it from a place of acceptance that we are called, that we were made with intentionality and that you desire to show us how to show up in our lives and in this world and this season at this job and this family and this marriage with these Children and all these things you got going on in our world, you
have instructions for how we can show up for them.
So God teach us, we wanna know how do we learn.
And I just, I hear God saying that you’re going to discover God’s commandment for your life through the practice of worship and that feeling that you get when you are in worship, inviting that feeling into your decisions.
What is a decision that worships who you are? I have an opportunity to respond to this message.
How does my response reflect worship?
I have an opportunity to respond to this person and just tried me, how do I respond from this place of worship?
How do I correct from this place of worship?
How do I show up for myself in this place of worship?
God, those commandments, the commandments that teach us how to hold on to our sacredness, our holiness, our righteousness while also allowing us to break curses and to tread upon serpents and to have authority over the things that have had authority over us.
That’s what we desire more than anything.
And I believe that you hear us, that you see us that you know who this is for.
So bless us with the strength to get it done in Jesus name. Amen. I love y’all.
18 minutes. She out of here, she did it. I’m gonna go pick up my baby.
Shout out to everyone getting off of work about to go to work, picking up their kids about to cook dinner and do all of the things.
And I do need everybody. Not just the ladies though. What’s up?
I definitely for the ladies but uh for the fellas too out here trying to make a dollar out of 50 cent, 50 cent.
It always confused me. Was it 50 or 15? Anyway? Stay focused.
I love you all deep and I hope that this helps somebody uh to get their head in the game.