By Gina Burgess –
These women, for it is mostly women that believe this way, although some men have also fallen into this satanic trap, believe what the world tells them and it is that they are ugly. They believe what those around them tell them and that is they are useless. They do not believe what God tells them. I know that thought process because I lived it. Oh, it took several years to be shaped into that mold, but I fit in it quite tightly. The space was so cramped; it took several years to break out of the mold of unacceptability and dependence upon others’ approval.
One thing I have learned during my years with my beloved Lord God there is no faith where there is no hope. The two are so entwined and bonded together that it is impossible to have one without the other. And the third cord in the unbreakable heavenly rope is God and His infinite love. With faith and hope comes love. First the Godly love that He pours into our hearts so that we can at least lift our face up to Him. Then faith comes evidenced by trust in what God promises to do and will do in our life, followed by hope that life isn’t ugly.
When you teach that selfishness and ego and the flesh are the same as self-esteem, you are removing hope which takes away faith and that takes away the capacity to recognize God’s love. God never removes His love from His creation or His beloved children. However, when
We love God because He created us with a huge God-sized hole within our hearts that only He can fill, but we are able to recognize something so extremely spiritual because He created us with a self-esteem that requires self-preservation almost at all costs. We want to live which is a motivation that most scholars don’t study when it comes to why we believe God about salvation.
Some people equate self-esteem with selfishness, old nature, flesh, pride etc. However, it is a God-created characteristic and is necessary for us to be able to recognize God’s love. In other words, God created self-esteem on purpose.
I think, perhaps, to separate self-image from self-esteem is a good thing. I do not believe they are the same thing at all. As a friend of mine has stated, self-image is how one sees one’s self. Self-esteem is how one regards one’s self or rather how one values one’s self.
Alone, we have a zero value—on the surface.
However, God valued us enough to send His Son to die for us. So what was it that made us worthy in God’s sight to pay this high cost?
It certainly wasn’t anything we did for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It wasn’t that our physical bodies were so valuable because we return to dust. It had to be the fact He created us for His good pleasure.
We are merely sojourners in this world, and we Christians know there are two ways to look at things:
- Worldly way
- God’s way
Perhaps it isn’t baldly apparent, but self-esteem does have a worldly meaning and a spiritual meaning.
We are worthy/valuable because God created us and we are worthy because Jesus paid for us. Of course no one can put a price on Jesus’ sacrifice which increases our value to God proportionately. There is no argument against sanctity of life. Regardless of how we value ourselves, God valued us enough to pay the highest price of propitiation.
From our side of the coin, we esteem God and the Holy Spirit dwells within us therefore we esteem ourselves—we value self because God resides within our soul thereby creating something new of eternal proportions. That is a healthy and non-egocentric valuation of self.
Satan and this world walk hand in hand when it comes to tearing down the Christian’s value system. We look at the world system and think we need to be skinny and have washboard stomachs, and rippling muscles and then we’ll be happy. We look at God’s system and realize this body is only temporary therefore useful for a pinprick of time compared to eternity.
However, Satan says we are ugly and he points to famous models to prove his point. Satan says we are not worth a plug nickel and points to the Donald Trumps of this world, or Bill Gates or Joseph Bloweth down the street, all who have the appearance of being the happiest people on earth with a multitude of material things spread out before them like a Baptist Dinner On the Grounds Picnic. Satan tries to twist the spiritual value system into a worldly standard and tries to make us compare ourselves one against the other, imperfect humans of this world. And we can always find someone who is prettier, has more money, has a better sense of humor, is kinder, has a better singing voice, can play the piano, and fill in the blank.
This is where we fall short because we measure our self-image or self-esteem against a measuring stick of other humans which is very dangerous. We start believing what others say about us – matters not whether it is bad or good. And that is a value system based on the world.
When we measure ourselves with the Perfect Measuring Stick—the Perfect Life—then we see how far short we really are. But in this scenario, it doesn’t matter how unworthy we are due to the litany of our sinful deeds because – For all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God; Romans 3:23. The glorious thing and what truly matters is God considered us worthy. God considers us acceptable – warts and all because Jesus stands between us and the Great White Throne.
Suddenly, life is so simple. Life is so restful. Life has purpose. Peace, joy, goodness, love, self-control not only permeates our life but, it becomes a lifestyle. Self-esteem is in the proper perspective viewed through God’s eyes because the Blood of Jesus makes us righteous.
We love Him because He first loved us and the only way we can possibly understand His unconditional love is because He created us capable of going beyond ego and reaching for completeness in our Lord God Almighty.
Our bodies do not belong to us. We would never house sit for someone while they were on vacation and repaint the house neon pink or replace all the furniture with concrete blocks. Therefore, by the same token, we should care for our bodies and ourselves as lovingly as the Owner of our bodies would. We just have temporary custody. Our bodies are God’s temple. Therefore, Godly-esteem is both external and internal because we are spiritually new creations.
Therefore, we must first understand which self-esteem level we are on. Remember, level one is the world and level two is spiritual. We belong to the spiritual plain because we are new creations.
The very fact the Bible mentions “loving yourself”, is proof that God understands how Satan works, beating us up with worldly ideas. It is entirely likely that a person not well grounded in Scripture could easily believe he is worthless and suddenly commits suicide in a fit of depression. It happens all the time.
Absolutely we have external esteem. But Christians have the internal self-esteem which extends down from a higher realm infusing the soul. We must look at ourselves through the Owner’s eyes, not through worldly eyes, and acknowledge it is He who established our worth and thereby our esteem.
Copyright © 2011 Gina Burgess. This excerpt used by permission of the author.
Gina Burgess studied journalism in college, took a detour to raise two beautiful daughters, then twenty-five years later graduated Magna Cum Laude from Midwestern State University; and is currently working on her Master’s of Communication at Spring Arbor University. Gina’s first love is using her God-given talent to reflect the Light in a dark world. She is committed to bringing God glory through her writing.
She’s been an editor for several publications, including Lifestyles Editor at her home town newspaper the Picayune Item; a weekly column for Studylight.org.
She’s a book reviewer for several publishers, and has taught Sunday School and Discipleship Training since 1970.
Refreshment in Refuge is an exploration into the message of the cross, “No stones,” and reflects that God never promised “No storms.” This book echoes a Christian journey through life’s storms, and Gina illustrates those storms with stories bringing to life biblical characters.
Check out Gina’s blog, Refreshment in Refuge http://refreshmentrefuge.blogspot.com/