Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.  Ephesians 1:6, King James Version

C.S. Lewis once wrote that when errors come into the world they come in pairs, as people are driven to one extreme or another.  For example, think of yourself more highly than you ought to and we say you are stuck on yourself–full of pride, arrogant and haughty.  On the other hand, if you constantly belittle yourself, your self‑image crumbles, you’re insecure and withdraw from others.

Do you know someone who is actually very capable but has to be constantly assured that she really is skilled and wonderful at her job?  She hasn’t learned to accept herself; she cannot stand up for what she really needs and constantly has to be encouraged to cope with her feelings of insecurity.  What about your friend who has gone from job to job because inevitably somebody gets more recognition than he does, and he cannot cope with it.  He is easily offended; and when he is, it is good‑bye.  Pride, or feelings of inferiority–they’re both ends of the same pole, both outcomes of struggling with thinking rightly about ourselves.  This is actually a very old human problem.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to some men and women in the city of Rome and gave them some advice.  He said, “This I say through the grace given to me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly….” (Romans 12:3).  Writing to the Corinthians, Paul warned of the dangers of pride resulting from feelings that you have “arrived.”  He said, “If anyone thinks he stands or is secure, let him take heed lest he fall,” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

It is a great relief when you realize that you can bring your feelings to God and learn that He accepts us on the basis of what Jesus Christ did when he gave His life for us.  The Bible says, “God has made us accepted in the beloved,” who is Christ (Ephesians 1:6).  When He accepts us, as we become His children through faith, we then enter into a new relationship with Him.  In short, God has a will for the lives of His followers and what happens in our day to day is the outworking of His plan.  It is when we refuse to believe that He has a plan that we are uptight in pushing ourselves forward and nursing our fractured egos when somebody else does better.  We forget the truth of the Psalm which says, “For promotion comes neither from the East nor from the West, nor from the South, but God is the judge; He puts down one and sets up another” (Psalm 75:6).  If someone gets a promotion you wanted, thank God that He has accepted you and put you exactly where He wants you.  This is why Paul wrote, “In every situation, learn to be content” (Philippians 4:11).

At the same time, we aren’t to belittle ourselves, thinking that we are worthless.  Take nothing and add Christ to it, and you have something touched by the Divine that is of eternal value.  We cheapen God’s grace when think less of ourselves than God does.  God forgave us, so we can forgive ourselves; God loves us, so we can love ourselves; God cares for us so we can trust Him to work His will in our lives.  We can be real with others about who we are and what God has done for us.

Neither pride nor feelings of inferiority produce the kind of men and women who are happy and purposeful in life; but learning to accept the circumstances of life, and trusting God to work His will through them, is the key to contentment with ourselves.

Resource reading: Romans 12: 1-7