Like this…

Do you remember the song, “Oh, Lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way!” That song was sung by Mac Davis. It was a catchy tune and I can still hear the song in my head today. One of the reasons this song was so popular was because it resembled a world view. It reminds us how the world places value on people.

The world’s vision of people is physical beauty, money and accomplishment. This is how many people get values of themselves. Of course, this doesn’t line up with the Word of God. There is no biblical guarantee that you will automatically receive healthy feelings about yourself when you accept Jesus as Your Savior. Some people do, but many do not.

I didn’t! You want to know a secret about me? I have low self-esteem. I love myself as a Man of God, doing what’s right and true… but at times, I don’t like myself. Matter of fact, there are times I’m so disgusted with myself, I’ll refuse to look into the mirror. Why?

It is mainly because I label good feelings about myself as pride or conceit -traits that God hates Proverbs 21:4. When I say I don’t like myself is because of my dislike of my carnal self. That unredeemed part that has wrapped itself around my human self in an attempt to control it. The carnal self can be destroyed, but not the human self. I see it as a tension between two verses - “I can do all things through Christ” and “Apart from me you can do nothing”

I have to constantly remind myself that how we view ourselves should be how God views us. God has already established our value, we just need to acknowledge and recognize it.

When I was in Italy during the Navy, I overheard others talking about the value of items you could obtain while in Italy. You could buy rugs and fabrics for pennies and return home and sell them for 200 – 300% profit. As Sailors, we were allowed to purchase and bring aboard ship only a certain amount of items. Basically, if they didn’t fit in your locker on the ship, you really couldn’t bring it aboard.

Being Italian, I realized this issue and went to find a stone called Paesina. A Rare Italian stone made into jewelry and worth a lot of money in America. I acquired 20 pounds of it with the intention of making a lot of money off it. I would have too except I failed to realize the value wasn’t really in the stone itself but the craftsmanship of the Jeweler. I did make a profit but it was nothing compared to what I would have made if it was already in the form of jewelry.

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

We are like the Italian stone when we first become saved….rare and valuable. Our real worth is when we let the craftsman mold and shape us once we become saved. This takes time and involves a lot of chipping away, sanding, smoothing and polishing. This doesn’t occur instantaneously.

There is a great video on you tube produced by “The Skit Guys” called “God’s Chisel”. I highly recommend you to see this video if you haven’t had the chance. It deals with God Chipping away at us and revealing our true selves in him.

Yes at times I don’t like myself very much but I know God loves me and views me much differently. Isaiah 62:5 “…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

My low self-image of myself is a reflection of how I believe other people see me. It consists of who I think other people think I am. That’s a lie straight from the Devil! It would be real cool if everyone liked me but I need to realize that it’s not necessary! Even Jesus was not liked by everyone. He had but twelve disciples, and one betrayed him and one denied him.

Proverbs 23:7 as a man thinketh in his heart so is he

Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with saying, "Nobody can make me feel inferior without my permission."

Saying adapted for Paul’s New Thinking: No one can make me feel anyway at all without my permission. My feelings are our chosen reactions to life’s events.

God wants to give us his view of life. He wants to enable us to love ourselves as he does, in order that we can love others the same way.

I am where I’m at because God loves me…what’s not to like about that?