Its wonderful to be with you all once again sharing fellowship and worship. Many of us from time may suffer from low self-esteem. We may feel, limited, stuck or even rejected.
Today, I want you to know that none of those things defines who you are. It is God who defines you. Know that you are loved and loved abundantly .
Let us sing: I know not why God's wonderous grace
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Lets just look a small portion of scripture Romans 12:3
Everyone among you don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought but think with sober judgement each according to the measure of faith assigned to you by God.
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Let us sing as we go into a time of prayer; A wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for revealing to me that I am imprisoning myself by not seeing the value and worth in your creation of me. Forgive me, Lord, for living in such a way that caused me to place more importance on the opinion of others and myself. I have doubted my ability and held myself back from being the person you desire me to be. I am under the bondage of this doubt and pray that you would release me and give me victory over it. It has robbed me of peace and joy in my life and has prevented me from living life to the fullest as a child of yours.
Help me to have compassion towards myself and to see that what I perceive as weaknesses, are, in fact, blessings. May I use those blessings to help others who may also be held down by the same untruth that I have been under. Lord, help me to see myself through your eyes and to see the beauty and person as a whole that you have created. You don't make mistakes, Lord. Please help me to value myself over anything of this world, whether it be what others think, or earthly possessions. I don't want to live up to what I think people expect of me; I want to live up to what you desire me to be. Give me the strength to overcome and to see that I am valued. Help me to accept who I am and to have confidence in my identity through you.
I pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
Please share with me the Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Before we go to the word let us sing: My hope is built on nothing less
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Low Self-Esteem
It’s sad when I talk with others who have low self-esteem. They struggle with normal things of life because they need external positive influences to help them through. And when those external positive influences aren’t there, and let’s face it, none of us can be positive influences 24/7, because I’m sure not everything goes well in your life. As not everything goes well in my life and when those good things aren’t there to help us prop up our mood, someone with low self-esteem has an awful life.
If we look in the social mirror to figure out who we are and what our value is, that’s full of people with their own problems! Of course we’ll end up with a distorted sense of who we are. What we need to do is to look at God, and we need to listen to what He has to say about who you are. You may be thinking “Ah well, religion, I’m not going to get self-esteem out of religion”. I agree, I don’t think you or I are ever going to get self-esteem out of religion. I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking about Jesus. I’m talking about the Son of God, who died on a cross for you and for me, who looks across at the criminal on the next cross and says, “I know you can’t do anything for me. I know you and I are going to be dead shortly. But I’m going to bless you. And I’m going to take you to heaven with me and you are going to have a fantastic eternal life”.
That criminal couldn’t do anything for Jesus. All he did was look at Jesus and believed. And Jesus saw that in his heart and blessed him. If Jesus thinks that about a criminal, He certainly thinks that about you and me. Being accepted by God, for me, was the most surprising thing. I never ever expected Him to accept me unconditionally. And I certainly never expected to have the sense of peace and well-being of just knowing that He loves me, of just knowing my life is in His hands … to live a life that doesn’t depend on external circumstances.
Let’s look at the whole question of accepting our own limitations. You and I are a packaged deal. We come made up of strengths and weaknesses. Yes, your strengths are different to mine and my weaknesses are different to yours, but we all have abilities; in part, they’re natural abilities. In part they’re learned. Someone who is a great musician or a great sports person, they have a certain amount of natural ability. And they then use that and work on that and learn from that. It’s not all natural and it’s not all learned. You have natural talents that you’re good at, that I could never do. And I have talents that I’m good at, that you could never do. Have you ever really sat down with a piece of paper and written down the things that you are good at? It’s a good exercise.
Too often, people don’t recognise their strengths. As I look at my strengths and my weaknesses, I can see a whole bunch of things I’m not good at; administration, office work is just not me. I have weaknesses, but then I’ve got some strengths; I’m a communicator, I have a passion for people, young and old. Wouldn’t it be shocking if everyone was like me? Wouldn’t it be terrible if everyone was like you? The truth is, that with my set of strengths, I need people around me, like you that has different strengths.
Paul the Apostle wrote this:
Everyone among you don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought but think with sober judgement each according to the measure of faith assigned to you by God. (Romans 12:3)
In other words, it’s God’s choice. The strengths and weaknesses that you have, the strengths and weaknesses that I have, God picked them. And to tell you the truth, once I let that sink in, I love the things that I am. And I love the things I’m not because the things I’m not are the opportunity for me to be blessed by your gifts, by other people’s gifts around me that complement who I am.
We can’t really get to that space until we’ve been gazing in God’s mirror and until we’ve been transformed from glory to glory and really know who we are. It’s like an eco-system, you go to a big forest and the huge, massive trees can’t live without the little insects. And the little insects can’t live without the flowers. And the flowers can’t live without the shade of the trees. It’s all connected, they’re all linked, they all need each other. And until we come to grips with how beautiful and wonderful and loved, we are in Jesus, we can’t see our weaknesses as anything more than a source of shame. But when we experience that deep sense of security of ‘who I am in Jesus Christ’, suddenly, those weaknesses become something that we’re comfortable with.
They become an opportunity for experiencing the blessings of God through other people, who have other gifts that are different to ours. And the weaknesses of other people, you know … the things that drive us nuts about other people when we get secure in God. Those weaknesses, instead of being a sense of frustration become our opportunity to love them with the love of God. They become our opportunity to bless them with our gifts. It’s a wonderful plan. It’s God’s plan and it happens when people are safe and secure in His love
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As we come to the close of our time together let us; Turn our eyes upon Jesus
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
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