Biblical Self-Esteem – Part 2
In order to understand ourselves as well as others we must have an understanding of who God is and to have a healthy concept of Him (as all of this is important in building relationships).
So often we have equated God with some bad experience. Perhaps we grew up in a home with abusive parents and consequently this affected our view of God. It is hard to think of God as a Father when we have never experienced a loving father here on earth. I think of so many homes today where there is only one parent, most usually a mother. The father fled long ago leaving the mother to raise the child.
We read in Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” In the development of relationships it is important that we start with God and the first step is “that God exists,” as we read in Hebrews 11:6. It is amazing how many Christian atheists we have in our churches today.
My thoughts about God will be seen by my thoughts about myself as well as others. Wrong thoughts about God lead to wrong thoughts about others and myself. This is a real problem today and one of the reasons we have breakdown in relationships. It comes back to a wrong concept of God.
When we come to the place where we believe that God exists then there are two things that we must consider:
Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
1. He is who He claims to be. He is not a man; He is God. This is the first thing that we should keep in mind. We believe that He exists.
2. He keeps His Word. He is not a man that He should lie. Man will lie, but this is not true with God. He is the truth and what He says will be the truth. This is so important in the society that we live in where truth has become relative (humanistic worldview) or in some quarters there is no recognition of such a thing as truth (postmodernism).
Anything we do must be built on the foundation of who God is. This is
important when it comes to building and maintaining relationships. The reason that this is important is because God gives us the principles that we are to live and govern our lives by.
Therefore, to take God at His Word, first we must believe that God exists and that what He says – we can count on; His Word is true and accurate.