As a man thinks lesson #2 part 1

We began looking last week at the Proverb of Solomon found in chapter 23:7, how as a man thinks in his heart so is he! Basically, Solomon is telling us that what you think about yourself in your own heart, you will eventually live out. So, without claiming to have all the answers to our inner struggles of living the kind of free, peaceful life that Christ has called us to live, we are striving to rid our minds of some self-defeating thought patterns that we encounter and trying to look at ourselves through the eyes of God!

We'll look at a real tough struggle that many Christians have a hard time getting over with: little worth!

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he! If you are a Christian who struggles in your own mind concerning your self-worth or lack of it, remember it will eventually show itself in how you live!

How big of a problem is this feeling of low self-esteem? Dr. James Dobson in his book what wives wished their husbands knew about women writes this: "it is sitting alone in a house during the quiet afternoon hours, wondering why you have no "real" friends. It is longing for someone to talk to, soul to soul, but knowing there is no such person worthy of your trust. It is the feeling that "they wouldn't like me if they knew the real me." It is becoming terrified when speaking to a group of your peers, and feeling like a fool when you get home. It is wondering why other people have so much more talent and ability than you do. It is feeling incredibly ugly and sexually unattractive. It is admitting you have become a failure as a wife and mother. It is disliking everything about yourself and wishing, constantly wishing, you could be someone else. It is feeling unloved and unlovable and lonely and sad. It is lying in bed after the family is asleep, pondering the vast emptiness inside and longing for unconditional love. It is intense self-pity. It is reaching up in the darkness to remove a tear from the corner of your eye. It is depression.1

Doesn't that just break your heart that someone who has been called into a justified relationship with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ could feel that way? The other question, how do people get like this?

How does this feeling play out in our lives?

As a man thinks in his heart so is he is a truth that will always rise to the surface of our lives! If you think in your heart that you are just not worth that much to anything or anybody, your life will show it!

1. A person with low self-esteem becomes vulnerable to falling into habits of sin especially sexual sin! You ever look at some people who go into some of the foulest of activities and wonder why? Many times it is due to a feeling of little worth! Since I am not worth that much, why bother to be good! Or, I must try to please; I must try to feel good about myself, so I must seek attention from others in any way possible! We know Paul urges us to follow his example and "press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14) but we're not good enough for that life.
2. A person with low self-esteem becomes apologetic to everyone important to him. They are doing this just to make me feel good! Oh, I know your father isn't much I hope you can love him anyway. I'm so sorry that I'm this way, can you still find it in you to feel a bit proud of me! Instead of simple confession of sins, confession becomes the only way you can converse!
3. A person with low self-esteem or little worth becomes someone who loses dreams! We soon begin to settle for less, after all what I'm not good enough to deserve. Everything from a mate to a job to a relationship with God is less. Why? Beggars can't be choosers. We can even begin to resent our choices and become people of anger.
4. A person with low self-esteem becomes someone who appears very harsh. You will meet these people at different times who have the criticisms of everybody right down to a tee and always gives the impression that they don't need or want to be loved. Madalyn O'Hair was one of the most caustic personalities one could meet. She vanished not too long ago and in her diary was this "Somebody, somewhere, love me." Sometimes when you meet someone who is hard to be around, who is filled with resentment towards life, maybe its because of what's going on inside?