Self-Esteem – Part 4
Our concept of God affects our concept of ourselves since we are made in the image of God.
God will accept us in Christ. However, we need to also see that God is a God of purpose and plan. First we read in Psalm 138:8 that He has a specific plan for us all. “The LORD will fulfill [his purpose] for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever – do not abandon the works of your hands.” But He has a general plan for us as well. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10
One of the things that I am learning is that to understand God’s plan for me – both specifically as well as generally – I need the interaction with the rest of the Body of Christ. This is where the importance of relationships comes in. We do not discover ourselves in solitude, but only when we share and give of ourselves. We need one another and this can also be threatening. A real problem that we have in the church today is that it is very easy to leave a fellowship and go someplace else where our interaction with one another can remain shallow. Consequently, we postpone the spiritual growth that God wants and desires in our life.
We begin to see and understand God’s concern and care for us when we read Scripture. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Through the interaction of the Body of Christ we begin to know this concern and care. This comes back to building strong biblicalrelationships. One of the great needs, humanly speaking, is for community with a sense of belonging and family. It is through this type of atmosphere that God expresses Himself.
Another aspect of what God will do through the Body is to give us guidance.How important this is for each one of us! How often we wished that God would speak to us in a clear voice and tell us what to do. I believe that God has given guidance through His Body, but maybe we did not listen or like what we heard.
Psalms 37:23 “If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm.”
Job 23:10 “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
Hebrews 2:11-12 ”So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”
Romans 8:37-39 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
In these verses we see God’s concern, love and guidance for Hischildren. These are concepts of God that we need to understand and take a hold of. Our concept of God affects our concept of ourselves.
We read in Scripture that God gives us spiritual gifts for the common goodof the Body. Look at some of those gifts. We have the gift of wisdom. Could a person with this gift give us insight to some of the things that we might need and should be doing? I believe so. What about the gift of knowledge in showing us right from wrong? We live in a society where the line of right and wrong is becoming very unclear, as Tozer said: “Truth and error walk the same highway.” How often we have needed men and women with the gift of knowledge to help us out in some of these unclear times.
All of these things are to give us a clear concept of God and in so doing also amore clearer concept of ourselves – made in the image of God.