You need to develop a picture of your worth and value from God and not from any warped reflections of your past. The healing of low self-esteem truly rests on a choice you make. Will you succumb to Satan’s lies, misrepresentations, insults, and hurts, allowing him to tie you up you with destructive feelings and beliefs about yourself? Or will you seek your self-esteem from God and His Word?
What right do you have to criticize and despise someone whom God loves so deeply?
Never claim to know that God loves you, but you simply can’t stand yourself. This statement betrays faith in God’s love. It’s an insult to Him and an understated expression of resentment towards your Creator. When you feel contempt for His creation, you are essentially revealing a dislike of yourself and a lack of respect for Him. You’re calling yourself unclean in God’s eyes and failing to grasp the profound depth of His love for you and your importance to Him.
What right do you have to criticize or despise someone whom God has honored so highly?
“Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called ‘children of God’” (1 John 3:1, Phillips). That’s not all we’re called. In the very next verse, Paul says, “Here and now, my dear friends, we are God’s children.” Do you believe that when you call yourself unworthy in His eyes and put yourself down that He is pleased with you?
What right do you have to put down or despise someone whom God values so highly?
“In human experience, it is a rare thing for one man to give his life for another, even if the latter be a good man… Yet the proof of God’s amazing love is this; that it was while we were still sinners Christ died for us… We may hold our heads high in the light of God’s love” (Romans 5:7-8, 11, Phillips). God has declared your value. He holds you in such high esteem that He sacrificed His beloved Son to redeem you.
What right do you have to demean someone whom God has provided for so completely?
“How much more will your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matthew7:11, NKJV)? “God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19, NKJV). This doesn’t sound like God wants you to dislike yourself or feel inadequate. It sounds like He loves you and wants to take care of you.
What right do you have to despise someone whom God has very thoroughly planned for?
“Praise be to God for giving us through Christ every possible spiritual benefit… Consider what he has done—before the foundation of the world he chose us to become, in Christ, his children, holy and blameless in His sight… He planned, in his love, that we should be adopted as his own children through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:3-5, Phillips).
What right do you have to belittle someone in whom God delights?
Paul said that we are “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6, NKJV). Do you remember what the Father said when John baptized Jesus? “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, NKJV). In Ephesians 1:6, Paul presents us with a bold truth: we are “in Christ.” He used this phrase at least ninety times. You are “in Christ,” consequently, you are in the Beloved. God looks at you in Christ and says to you, “You are My beloved child, in who I am well pleased.”
Just where will you get your self-image from? From the reflections of your childhood? From the past hurts and false beliefs that have been ingrained in you? Or will you declare, “I will no longer succumb to these lies. I will not listen to Satan, the liar, the deceiver, the accuser, who twists and distorts what is true. I will embrace God’s opinion of me and allow Him to transform me until His loving assessment of me becomes an integral part of my life, right now, to my very core.”
You must cooperate with God in this process of transformation and renewal. Such work is an ongoing process. There’s no single Christian experience that will transform your self-image overnight. You are to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). The verb “transformed” in this verse signifies a continuous action, while the word “mind” describes the way you perceive life every day.
How can you cooperate with the Holy Spirit? Whenever you find yourself putting yourself down, ask God to get your attention. You might even realize that your whole life has been a put-down of yourself. Take a moment to consider how you react when someone compliments you. Do you say “thank you” or do you give a long explanation about why you’re not so great? If you’ve been demeaning yourself for a long time, it’ll be hard to stop making those excuses. But with God’s help, you can.
Someone might say, “You did so well teaching that lesson,” and you respond with “Well, it wasn’t me. It was all the Lord.” Sure, it was the Lord. However, it was also you partnering with Him. God couldn’t have taught it without your surrender. If you do this kind of thing repeatedly, it reveals a low self-esteem and your feelings of unworthiness.
Let God love you. Let Him guide you on this journey, teaching you to love yourself and others. You crave love, His approval, affirmation, and acceptance, which He freely offers. But due to wretched coaching from other sources, it becomes difficult to embrace His love. In fact, it becomes so difficult that you find it more comfortable just to stay the way you are.
Today, I dare you to embark on God’s healing journey, so that you can know without a doubt who you are as a child of God and that you are His Beloved.
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