Why do I feel bad about myself? Steve, along with guests J.D. King and Zion Vierra, answer this question and unpack the myth of self-esteem. This modern world offers many solutions for feeling good about yourself and boosting your self-esteem, but none of those answers can heal, transform, and empower you like God can.
The Myth
The world has you thinking that your problems can be fixed if you can turn your low self-esteem into high self-esteem. The problem is that no one else cares about your level of self-esteem, because everyone is only paying attention to himself or herself.
High self-esteem is not the solution to all of your problems. In fact, the world’s answers for building self-esteem are often shallow and temporary. Superficial things do not heal.
James 4:10 instructs, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” If you come low before God, He will overtake you with His grace and power. God lifts you up—you don’t have to lift yourself up. Paul gloried in his weakness so that he could get the strength and grace of God (see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
” You can’t die to yourself and try to build up yourself at the same time.”
The Bible talks about dying to yourself, serving others, not thinking too highly of yourself, etc. Jesus modeled this humility. When Jesus came to earth, he turned down the chance to walk equal with God and lowered himself as a servant. You cannot die to yourself while you’re trying to build yourself up.
The Cure
Many people don’t have low self-esteem but feel they are not getting from others the esteem they feel they deserve. They feel undervalued, unappreciated, and unloved.
The answer to the self-esteem problem is stepping into God’s system of honor. In God’s culture, we honor God, our parents, and others. Start establishing the system of honor towards the people around you, in your family and in your workplace. You reap what you sow. So eventually, the honor you’ve shown will come back around, and other will honor you.
You do not need any self-esteem. It’s actually quite the contrary, because when you honor to God and build others up, you will begin receiving the esteem from others.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Questions:
Have you bought into the myth of self-esteem?
What is God’s answer to the self-esteem problem?
How will you yield your weakness to God?
Resources:
Purchase J.D.’s books: Regeneration, You’ve Been Duped, and Shift: Leading in Transition at The Resurgence Store.
