06. Realize Your Self-worth

 

God’s Bucket List for You, part 5

 Introduction to the series, click here

Introduction

One of the problems I suffer from, as do a lot of people, is a low self-esteem. We often make the mistake of basing our self-esteem on our family, friends, occupation, area we live in, and our home. Although all of that factor into our lives, they don’t have to be the main basis of our self-esteem.

As part of His bucket list for us, God wants us to realize our self-worth by examining our lives according to His scriptures. If we are not following His word, as written, then we need to change and build up our self-esteem.

 

Moses’ lack of Self-worth

In our previous article, we looked at Moses and the excuses he made to God as he didn’t want to lead his people out of Egypt. One of his excuses was a lack of eloquent speech. Here’s what he said in Exodus 4:10, Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Because he didn’t have the charisma of a great orator, he didn’t think that he would be very convincing in the presence of pharaoh.

Yet, God showed him that he could still do it as shown in verse 11 and 12, So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”

 

What about Apollos?

In the New Testament, we meet a man by the name of Apollos in Acts 18. Here’s how he’s described in verse 24, Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This is definitely the description of a man who had great self-worth; eloquent and well-versed in the scriptures. However, in verse 25, something is revealed which changes your view of him, This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. Apollos was an all-together individual but he was off on one thing in God’s word; knowing only the baptism of John. Although there was nothing wrong with John’s baptism itself, it was Jesus who was the way to salvation (Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Being self-confident is great but being scripturally incorrect doesn’t help matters. He was pulled aside by Aquila and Priscilla and taught more accurately (vs. 26). We can also conclude that Apollos was re-baptized into Jesus and continued to preach more accurately (See my article, Unmentioned Baptisms).

 

What About Paul?

Unlike Apollos, the apostle Paul wasn’t an eloquent speaker as he states in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He even refers to handwriting as awful, See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand! (Galatians 6:11)

Still, this didn’t stop him from proclaiming God’s word. He may not have had the charisma of a televangelist or tent preacher, but he preached the truth straight from God’s word. He didn’t soften God’s word to keep from offending people, he spoke it with authority and confidence as he was doing what God asked of him.

 

What about Us?

To show our true self-worth, here’s what God said in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” Although He was speaking about Jeremiah in the context, this can apply to every human being on the planet.

For further encouragement, here’s what Jesus had to say about it in Matthew 10:29-31, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” This means that if God is aware of every sparrow and creature on this planet; and what becomes of it, how much does He know and care about us and what we are doing.

If we are true New Testament Christians, then this should be all the confidence and self-worth that one needs. We are doing God’s word according to His commandments and not of man’s word (Mt. 7:21; Mt. 15:7-9).

This is not to say that we won’t be pulled down by the world or by our own lives. What this means is that even if we’re pulled down, we won’t stay down. We’ll get back up, dust ourselves off, and continue on the path of righteous until the very end (Rev. 2:10).

Conclusion

Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 8:31, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Build your self-worth based on the scriptures but, at the same time, remain humble and be a servant to your fellow man.