Can God help me build up my self-esteem?
“I’m worthless!”
That’s a depressing statement. Yet many people silently admit to themselves that they are worthless. The single mom who doesn’t feel loved; the child or adult who can never seem to do anything right for his parents; the employee who messed up on the job again; they and many others feel that they are not worth very much. Maybe you’ve felt this way. Is there an area of your life in which you want to feel better about yourself?
Many say you can establish a positive self-image by focusing on your skills, accomplishments, status, financial resources, or appearance. There’s “help” out there in the form of self-hypnosis, support groups, affirmation and visualization techniques, plastic surgery, self-help books, CDs, DVDs, and other attempts to build self-esteem. All these efforts only provide a temporary, superficial lift. Ultimately they prove to be feeble efforts to feel worthwhile.
We all want to feel a sense of worth, love, and security in our lives, but we can’t provide them for ourselves. But God can. He freely gives them to us through his Son, Jesus. His Word tells us not to focus on ourselves but on him, to look not at what we’ve done but at what he’s done for us through Jesus Christ. Our sense of worth and value – our self-esteem – is found in the Savior who lived and died in our place.
A man named Paul realized this when he said, “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). In Jesus we find a status before God that we could never produce, a love from God that is unfailing, and the security for life in knowing that our Savior who loves us will be with us each and every day.
God’s way of helping us build up our self-esteem is showing us Jesus. Please join us to find out more about your Savior who lived and died for you.