It's pretty clear that if you are a Christian with a strong faith in God, there is no way you should have low self-confidence or self-esteem. After all, here are some of the things the Bible has to say about this subject:
- Hebrews 13:6 (ESV) - So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
- Philipians 4:13 (NKJV) - I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Joshua 1:9 (ESV) - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
- Hebrews 4:16 (NLT) - So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
As Christians, we have the power of God available to us at all times as long as we are doing acting according to His word. There is nothing for us to fear. And we can do anything. If that knowledge and belief doesn't give you confidence, nothing will.
But we shouldn't be prideful or arrogant either. When we come out of a time of need, we usually have no problem giving thanks to God for His help. But when things have been going well for us for a while, we tend to stop giving the glory to God, and instead start attributing our success to our own abilities, intelligence, and authority or power. And while it may be true that those things are what allowed us to achieve those successes, we forget that it was God who gave them to us in the first place! This is what I have the hardest time remembering - that is until God gives me some "constructive criticism" and reminds me how weak I really am without Him.
- Proverbs 11:2 (NLT) - Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
- Proverbs 16:16 (NIV) - Pride does before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
- Proverbs 26:12 (NKJV) - Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
The right balance of pride and humility is confidence. Romans 12:3 (NKJV) says "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think
soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith."
The way we think about humility nowadays is closer to weakness or spineless. That is why I'm using the word "confident" in describing what I believe we should be in our daily lives.
We should be confident in our skills, abilities, intelligence, and especially in our faith in God. Now it is also true that we each have a different level of faith, and our expectations of what we can do should be appropriate to the amount of faith we have. Any more and we're being too confident - leading to arrogance. Any less and we're not being confident enough - leading to spinelessness or laziness. It's a tightrope we all walk every day. Once you understand this though, you can start working on your balance.
No comments:
Post a Comment