Greetings
What is "self-esteem" and what should our BIBLICAL view of it be? Shouldn't our view of ourselves only be found in HIM? The world places an importance on "self" worth but what does GOD say about the matter? Clearly we should not think highly of ourselves but wouldn't it be just as sinful to think too lowly of ourselves also??
How do you share with someone or help them find their worth in GOD alone??????
God bless
mj
Hi sister, as I began to read your post I thought of " worth," then saw you ended with that word. I think there is a difference between self esteem and worth. Self esteem is what we think about ourselves and we know that the heart is deceitfully wicked. Yet worth is about what someone else thinks about us and lets us know that. And in this knowing that we have worth in the eyes of another then we begin to think rightly about ourselves.
Now many may live lives where they have no sense of their own worth. They certainly do not get it from others, many times quite the opposite and then they have low self esteem which is cancerous in my opinion. But the answer is not self esteem or a higher self esteem. The answer is Jesus. I personally felt myself to be worthless prior to encountering Jesus. This is a destructive mindset. Yet when I had a revelation of Calvary everything changed. I suddenly realized just how much value my heavenly Father placed on me. How much you might ask. Look to Calvary. For God so loved me that He allowed His only Son to die for me. That rocked my world. And the change did not happen overnight. As I walked on in my salvation, I would have more revelations of Calvary and the depths of it and it gradually restored a broken soul.
Now, feelings of worthlessness did not leave me alone. It is a spiritual battle. I believe it lies at the very heart of spiritual warfare. God the Father pronounces us loved and He manifests that love on Calvary. The enemy of our souls pronounce us worthless and comes against the truth of Calvary. The opening chapter of Job gives a remarkable insight into this fundamental battle. Read and see that God pronounces Job to be blameless. Now that should have been the first and last chapter. Yet we see Satan, with all of hid might try to convince Job otherwise and with the help of his " friends," too.
The truth is that God loves us. He loves us with an everlasting love. His thoughts about us are more numerable than the sands of the sea, more than all the stars in the sky. We are the apple of His eye. How much does He love us you say? I say look to Calvary. Cry out to God for a revelation of Calvary. Lack of worth is crushed by the glory and the truth of Calvary. He loved us so much that He allowed His son to be crucified.
It is one thing to be humble and meek but we must never be caught up in the circles of Christianity who believe it is virtuous to proclaim themselves to be vile worms. A lie from hell. Knowing how much God values us is the highway to heaven. If we follow that love and live in the realization of how much the Lord loves us and what the Lord has done for us then we will fulfill the Gospel that Jesus pronounced in the Temple that He had come to heal the brokenhearted and set at liberty the captive soul. His love is my freedom and He who the Son loves, sets free, is loved indeed, is free indeed................bro Frank
Greetings Frank
Thank you for writing back, I do think there is a difference between self esteem and our worth in JESUS as well. I am struggling to help my son see this...he is in such a difficult place just now and thinks so negatively of himself. As I shared before he struggles with fear, worry, and anxiety and he can't seem to let go of what others think of him. He sees himself as such a failure.
After reading what you share I believe FATHER is leading me to change my focus. Instead of trying to get him see he has value, I will point him to look to JESUS and prayerfully he will come see how much GOD loves him and find his worth there. Thank you for sharing these good reminders with me.
God bless you brother
mj
It is complex, yes?
I am worth x to me. But I am worth the precious flesh of Jesus and much more to God. I tend to measure what I am worth by what I love, by the value of everything around me. I may debase myself if nothing around me is worth much to me. But, God is only perfection and holiness and our worth to him is devalued by nothing.
While thinking about the issue, I am realizing that our view of ourselves can either operate under 1 of 2 categories:
1) Self-worth.
2) Satisfaction in Christ.
If we focus on self-worth, then self-esteem becomes an important issue regarding that. Even if we dress it up with biblical terms, self-esteem is still the esteeming of our own selves.
If we focus on being satisfied with Jesus Christ, then the esteeming of our selves is a moot issue. My primary concern will be the glory of God. When the enemy attempts to attack me and tries to make me focus on self-esteem, I can take him straight to Jesus Christ and all the precious promises He has given me and stand upon those.
Most of us float around somewhere between those 2 points.
Tim writes............
"God is only perfection and holiness and our worth to him is devalued by nothing."
Amen bro. And I think in this is everything. What we think is fallible, so our thoughts towards ourselves are not exactly trustworthy to say the least. So, God being infallible, it only truly matter what He says, what He thinks for what He says and thinks is true.
Yet here it the thing, we can know that and say amen to it in our heads but our hearts, our minds, our psyche is something different entirely. I think that is why we use the phrase " feeling of unworthiness." Feelings are not changed by intellectual knowledge. It is not enough to know something, its a start but its not enough. There has to be an encounter, a revelation an inspiration in order to change our " psyche." God dwells in the realms of our heart and not of our head. An old hymn states " If salvation was a thing that money could buy then the rich would live and the poor would die." Spirit must communicate with spirit. We shall not get revelation by might or power but by revelation and revelation comes by the Spirit of God and changes everything.
I agree Tim, it is complex and deeply personal because it goes to the heart of who we are and in the end, only God can change who we are.............bro Frank
Greetings
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts with me. I spoke with my son again this morning. There were more tears but he listened more closely then I believe he ever has before. I believe GOD is bringing him to a place where he is seeing things in a way he had not before. He admitted he is afraid to surrender all to JESUS. I shared with him that he is traveling down the same failed road of self living, allowing fear, and worry to rule him. We talked much of how he sees himself and then we talked at length of how JESUS sees him. In the end he admitted he needed JESUS, needed to have his eyes opened to see JESUS love for him and to lay hold of what it really means to surrender all at the cross.
I believe GOD is working in his heart and life just now and
I am praying for him to have a real encounter with JESUS, to meet JESUS now while he is at the cross roads looking down that road he has traveled so often before. I am praying that he will see GOD has a better plan for him, that HE loves him and wants more then he can ever imagine for him.
God bless
mj
Down through the years Psalm 139 has spoken to the matter of how I see myself and my worth. God knows all about me and still he loves me. How I feel about myself comes from my relationship with the Lord and who He says I am. I still sit, take my time, and read Psalm 139 out loud. I let the words resonate as I remember that I am not only fearfully and wonderfully made but I am loved with an everlasting love. I would also say go back to the Gospel. Jesus told us to take His yoke upon us and learn of Him. Many people know of Christ but they don't "know” Christ. It's hard to trust someone you don't know. Your son can't have your faith. He has to have his own. What does your son "know” concerning Christ for sure?
Philippians 2:3
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
We are to esteem others better than ourselves. We are also called to love ourselves (according to godliness), yet called to love others also.
When esteem is prefixed with self it seems to change the impact and meaning of the word esteem. From a Christian point of view it seems the word is being perverted by prefixing it with self.
To esteem is "to regard something or someone very highly."
Hi Jasmine, I too love Psalm 139. I wrote this poem a few years ago based on that psalm. May it bless you and may it bless MJ's son who I have been praying for.........bro Frank
The Book of Life was opened
And a name was written down
All of heaven stood and gazed
Not a movement, not a sound
The angels watched in silence
As the story did unfold
And from the pages of the book
The story it was told
And life sprung up from off the page
These words became a man
The angels gasped to see such work
To see God's mighty plan
A soul was fashioned in His hand
And how, no one could tell
It was marvelous and wonderful
And this my soul knows well
Where could I go from you Spirit Lord?
Could I hide in the depths of the sea?
No matter where I run to Lord
You still come after me
I could take the wings of the morning
And fly into the darkest night
And there be blinded by the darkness
And you would come and give me sight
I could ascend to the highest heaven
And I would find you there
I could fall to the lowest pits of hell
And discover that you are everywhere
And so you came and sought me out
Even in this hell dark place
For the day and night are both alike
As they gaze upon your face
For in the glorious light of heaven
There is no darkness that can stand
For through the very gates of hell
You came and took me by the hand
And you laid your hand upon me
That hand that gave me birth
That hand that knew me through and through
Before I came to earth
For before the earth was fashioned
That Book was in your hand
Before the sun shone in the sky
All of this was planned
Oh search me God and know my heart
That sin may have no place in me
For I was covered by your Blood
That precious Blood of Calvary
This sin it would assault my soul
And rob and steal and take from me
The testimony of my King
And what He did on Calvary
But praise the Lord there is no power
Neither hell nor death nor misery
Can come against the precious work
The precious work of Calvary
How precious are your thoughts to me
They're more in number than the sand
I'll praise you Lord eternally
My name was written by your hand.
Hi Brother Frank...that was beautiful! I do enjoy so many of your post which bless me but I hardly say so lest I come off looking like a stalker lol. So I just witness them before the Lord. He knows...
The stalker part made me smile :) God bless you sister.........bro Frank
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