Food for Thought
January 28, 2008 |
I was a reporter for 12 years. One of the first things I learned in researching a story was "garbage in, garbage out." If your raw data is flawed, you end up with a faulty conclusion. The same is true with how we see ourselves. If we lack self-confidence, maybe we're working with flawed data.
The reality is, in hundreds of subtle ways, our culture, family, friends - even our thought life - conspire to undermine our confidence. We grow up in families void of affirmation, encouragement, and respect - the building blocks to self-confidence. Then we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a world that lionizes Size Two Hollywood starlets and Barbie-doll figures. Our paycheck, our title, our designer labels, or some other artificial yardstick gives us temporary entree into the world of The Accepted. But in our hearts, we know it isn't real. How do we find our way to the truth?
In the J.B. Phillips translation of the Bible, Romans 12:3 reads, "Try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities by the light of the faith that God has given to you all." Our relationship with Jesus sheds new light on who we are and what we do.
Posted by Caryn Rivadeneira on January 28, 2008
Comments
Thanks for this reminder! Another thing that we have to realise to help our confidence is knowing love.
Eph 3:19 “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God…”
This verse is saying that to know love is greater than to know knowledge. Many of us are seeking to understand God by working things out from our worldly perspective and seeking answers instead of resting and trusting in God’s love. Our need for understanding can diminish our accepting the love God wants to give to us. Confident of love that you cannot understand is better than trying to understand and know fully in your mind God’s love.
I think I am beginning to understand better through Sentor and Nouwen’s readings that the inner man is the true self that answers to the Divine pattern, while the outer man is the material frame that answers to the self that finds expression in terms of earth. This outer man is so customized to respond to the culture we live in that for me as a westerner I see God’s word and his love through my cultural eyes. I cannot not help that but what I can do is to expose my thinking to the discerning power of the Holy Spirit so that I can accept the fact that I do not need to know and understand God and His love as much as I need to be secure and trusting in that love.
How secure am I in God’s love? Am I totally convinced of God’s love for me? I believe that if I can grasp this love despite not understanding it in my humanness I will be content and joyful. I don’t have to prove my love by working harder but rather rest and relax in a love that will never let me go.
Ruth Sentor’s in her book ( ) expresses what I am trying to say.
Don’t try to understand me. Just love me and let me love you. You don’t have to understand me to open yourself to My love. – p 100
Child, surrender your need to understand. Make it your goal to love me rather than understand Me. – p 103
Posted by: Ruby Mikulencak on February 1, 2008
Hi,
I fought valiantly with a negative self image for years.
I believe that the answer for the Christian is to allow God to renew your mind by setting your mind on the things above [God] rather than on things of this world for the mind set on the flesh is death where the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 12:2, Colossians 3:2, and Romnans 8:6.
In other words we must take evry thought captive and replace those tapes in our head with what The Father has to say about who He is and who we are "in Christ." Who we are "in Christ" is who we TRULY are. 2Corinthians 10:5
When we try and become someone worthy of self acceptance, we will fail everytime. God ordained our flesh to eventually fail because it is only when we recognize how poor and bereft we are wtihout Christ that we come to see how much we not only need God but desire God.
When I was willing [and it took a lot of personal brokenness for me to get to this place] to be stripped naked of all my "false" identities and stand with my need exposed, then I was able to see the glorious, wonderful, healing, freeing, truth that as a human being I am nothing without Christ yet everyting with Christ.
As long as I feel I must dress myself up in some way in order to have self-acceptance I will never experience it. Self-acceptance is not earned. Self-acceptance is imparted.
Self-confidence, on the other hand, is fleeting and depends upon past experience and present circumstances.
Self-confidence and self-acceptance, when it is an exercise of self-effort is sin because it is seeking to get our needs met apart from God.
The tragic thing is--we will never experience what it is like to finally be home with The Father as long as we insist upon playing a part in our own worthiness. We can, in part, know the cross and Jesus without ever experiencing our sonship and the heart of The Father within us that keeps us centered and sealed.
No matter what your past, your wounds, or your present circumstances, you can experience self-acceptance this very moment if you are willing to let it all rest upon Christ. He is the one who chose you, called you, and made you who you are. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
It is not about what you and I produce or do not produce friends,for apart from Him we can do NOTHING. It is about who you and I belong to. Do you belong to the family of Adam or to the family of God? Ephesians 2;10, John 1:3--5
I would encourage you to meditate on what God has to say about who you are in Ephesians chapters 1 thru 4.
Posted by: Doreen Pettit on February 1, 2008