Self-esteem is how each individual values herself. Poor self-esteem (bad, condemning feeling about yourself) are weights that keep believers under condemnation and cause them to be less than what God intends. Believers are to combat such feelings of inferiority.
Hebrews 12:1, 2 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that isset before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith...Let us run with perseverance
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus
Proper self-esteem in a follower of Christ is a matter of recognizing and confronting yourself in your humility, including the tendency to sin.
1 Peter 2:25 - For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.It is also a matter of embracing Jesus' work on the cross - His grace that covers a multitude of sins. The process of comprehending God's infinite care for an individual - each with unique strengths and weaknesses - puts a perspective on self-esteem. Psalm 139 expresses the wonder of being uniquely created by God and the intimate care of His presence at all times. Jesus tenderly described His love for His children.
Matthew 6:25-34 - Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Forthe Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.Prerequisites to Healthy Self-Esteem
~ Recognize the need of a Saviour
Isaiah 53:6 - All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.~ Accept being "in the beloved"
Ephesians 1:6 - to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.~ Move forward in God's plan for your life
Philippians 3:13, 14 - Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal forthe prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.~ Have a REALISTIC view of yourself
Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.~ AVOID comparisons to others
2 Corinthians 10:12 - Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
Healthy Self-Esteem Characteristics:
~ Resting in "ownership" by God
1 Corinthians 3:16 - Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?~ Submitting to being the "workmanship" of God
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.~ Appreciating the differences of others
1 Corinthians 12~ Willingness to take risks // steps of faith
Esther 4:13-16 - Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”~ Forging good relationships with others
Ruth 1:16, 17 - But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
God does not evaluate human worth as we do. He looks to the heart within, while we tend to look only at the outer frame.
1 Samuel 16:7 - But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1 Peter 3:3, 4 - Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.The heart of a health self-esteem is recognizing that "self" must be seen as created for God's glory. We might more accurately say that within every believer there must be "God-esteem," which accepts whatever lot in life is ours.
We must be willing to change weaknesses into strengths when possible - and when that is not possible, we are to look for opportunities for God to be glorified even in our failures and suffering. God does not make mistakes, and He is never finished working in us as He continues to refine and edify, helping each woman reach her maximum potential.
1 Peter 5:10 - And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.Negatives can be changed into positives and tragedies into triumphs with the Saviours touch.
Jesus became one of us so that we could be one of His. In securing our salvation, God did more than forgive us; He made us members of His family.
Ephesians 2:19 - So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
