Tag: Self-esteem

Self-Esteem and Forgiveness

We hear a lot about “self-esteem” today. The “self-esteem movement,” made up of some religious teachers and psychologists, seeks to make people feel better about themselves without making any reference to sin or the need for forgiveness. Some religious teachers have even said that Christianity should stop talking about sin. Because the movement is associated with psychology, many mistakenly believe that the claims of the “self-esteem movement” have a scientific basis. They do not.

Consider the Pharisee who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men…” From the world’s standpoint, he had no trouble with self-esteem. On the other hand, the world would say that the sinner who prayed, “God be merciful to me, a sinner…” had a serious self-esteem problem. In Jesus’ analysis, however, the Pharisee’s self-righteousness – his “good self-image” – was what kept him from God. It was the sinner’s knowledge of his self-worthlessness, and humble repentance, that brought him the peace of God in a personal relationship with his Maker.

From this vantage point, it is easy to see that the cult of self-esteem promotes self-righteousness. Adding Christ to self-esteem still produces self-righteousness.

Christians and all people need to be encouraged to focus on Christ! The Christian who lives a daily life of repentance in the full knowledge that Christ has redeemed him, making full atonement and peace with God, will have no “self-esteem problem.”

Luke 18:13
“And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as [his] eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

Prayer: Forgive me, dear Lord, for those times when I have thanklessly felt sorry for myself or let my pride come between us. Fill me with the joy and peace that only You can provide through the forgiveness of my sins. Amen.

Photo: Man crying in a support group, Envato.

Source: Creation Moments

SELF

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,…”  Ephesians 2:1

The opening scripture is describing our condition prior to finding forgiveness for our sins in Jesus Christ, our great Savior.  We were dead to God. What an awful thought.

Concerning this “dead” relationship to God, I want to share the following statement from William Law (1686-1761).  Law was a devout Christian Englishman who, through his writings, attempted to wake up the sleeping church in his day. He wrote the following about Self:

“Men are dead to God because they are living to Self. Self-love, self-esteem and self-seeking are the essence and the life of pride; and the Devil, the father of pride, is never absent from these passions, nor without an influence in them. Without a death to self, there is no escape from Satan’s power over us….

To discover the deepest root and iron strength of pride and self-exaltation, one must enter into the secret chamber of man’s soul, where the Spirit of God, who alone gives humility and meek submission, was denied through Adam’s sin…

Here in man’s innermost being, self had its awful birth, and established its throne, reigning over a kingdom of secret pride, of which all outward pomp and vanities are but its childish, transitory playthings….

Imagination, as the last and truest support of self, lays unseen worlds at his feet, and crowns him with secret revenges and fancied honors. This is that satanic, natural self that must be denied and crucified, or there can be no disciple of Christ. There is no plainer interpretation than this that can be put upon the words of Jesus, “Except a man deny self, and take up the cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple.”

The Seduction of Christianity – Dave Hunt & T.A. McMahon

I have read this statement numerous times and each time I see something else about my Self.  May you linger over it until the Holy Spirit has shown you everything He wants to show you concerning your Self.

May we evaluate our discipleship in the light of the words of our Lord. Is our discipleship genuine according to His statement in Mark 8:34 or is it just a religious facade like the Pharisees had. Jesus described them as whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside but full of death or Self on the inside.

Heavenly Father, God of all wisdom, please open our understanding to how deadly Self is. In Jesus’ precious name we ask this. Amen.

We believe in and therefore choose to walk in Paul’s words:

“…knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with , that we should no longer be slaves to sin…” (Romans 6:6)

Take up the Cross,

Carl