Self-Esteem is not the same as Confidence

Confidence is not the same as "self-esteem" and yet most people think of confidence when they hear the words "self-esteem."

"Self-esteem" is esteeming ourselves better than others.

Philippians 2:3-5

"3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

In other words, the "self-esteem" doctrine is against God's word and according to faulty human wisdom.

Confidence resides in a person who knows what they believe and trust in Christ for His wisdom. Confidence does not cause us to treat others as beneath us, but it does allow us to carry on our lives without fear of what others think of us.

Confidence allows us to be kind to those who are unkind to us. It allows us to defer to others because of our love for Christ and for them.

Those who are confident do not think of themselves very much, they just live the way they believe and share truth with others to help them.

Those who narcissistically live by self-esteem are those who lack confidence needing to be superior in order to feel good about themselves. Their own interests and their own feelings take priority over everyone else. These people cannot learn, they remain emotional and spiritual infants always on the defensive to prove themselves to others. They can never receive a correction and are always correcting and judging others.

A confident person need not feel superior to anyone and can boldly state their beliefs because they do not fear the reactions or retaliation of others.

Confident people walk in love and truth as a lifestyle.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails."

Love does not show partiality or need to impress those they think are superior to others.

A confident person feels no need to explain to others why they do things although they may have dialogues to clear up misunderstandings with those who are rational and reasonable. Those who would invite a good discussion to resolve things will want to discuss matters in love, this is what makes good relationships.

Our world is rampant now with those who are madly in love with themselves and enraged when someone challenges them to self-reflect for emotional and spiritual growth.

We cannot help those who refuse to be helped and we cannot have a relationship with those who want only to be superior to us. These people judge only two ways, they see those they admire as perfect and those they don't admire as all bad. They are not able to see someone in truth and love them, warts and all. Narcissists live vicariously through those they elevate while denying the good in those who are judged as imperfect.

In other words, the love of a narcissist is not love at all but conditional to our performance that matches pitch with the elevated idea they have of themselves.

What a blessing it is when we meet people who are honest open and loving, ready to discuss things as we all grow and learn from one another. There is no pretense with God's people, just authentic love as they live out their life in Christ.

It is also a blessing to enjoy the company of others we know are imperfect because we know we all are lacking in something. The beauty of the loving Christ like relationship is that we accept and love a person with all their blessings and warts. There is no pride or self-promotion involved in genuinely righteous brothers and sisters in Christ.

God told us to walk away from those who say they are Christians but who walk disobediently through self-exaltation. We can pray for them and even rebuke them at times but they cannot be our constant companions, they will bring out the worst in us and we will enable their bad behavior by remaining with them.

Galatians 5:22-23

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, / gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Ephesians 4:2

"with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,"

Colossians 3:12-14

"Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. / Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. / And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity."

1 Peter 4:8

"Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

God made it clear that we are to edify one another, that is help one another to walk more Christlike with great compassion toward one another.

Gifts from the Heart are of More Value than Gifts from Obligation

Gifts given out of obligation are no gift at all, but a burden. Hosea 6:6

Obedience and Truth

Partial obedience is still disobedience and
Half-truths are still whole lies

Partial Obedience is Still Disobedience

We are living in the end times in which many, if not most people are experiencing individuals who are very selfish and mean.

I remember when the "self-esteem" teaching began back in the 1970's most people began to accept it because it sounded kind. Then the churches followed the world and adopted it too.

The problem with the building of "self-esteem" is that it is the devil's way of fooling people into believing we need to foster "sefl-love" not realizing that we are all born with self-love and need to love others better than ourselves.

Philippians 2:3-4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves".

Sadly even those who said they didn't agree with "self-esteem" teaching began to implement it eventually under the pressure of family, church and friends who thought it was mean and rude to discipline children. This is the opposite of what God taught in His word and because church people were not reading the Bible or those who were reading it were interpreting it in the context of what the world was doing instead of evaluating the world according to the Bible we have the mess we have today. The culture is self-destructing as we near the end of the church age.

Now we have most families broken and fractured, even Christian families who attend gatherings every week but have no clue what God teaches and have followed the world's ways.

Ephesians 6:4 "

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

Putting this passage with other passages from the Bible we learn that lack of discipline is a form of frustrating a child because leniency brings insecurity to the heart of a child who is neglected through "time out" and indulgence when they have tantrums.

Proverbs 23:12-14 "…12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. 13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; although you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 14 Strike him with a rod, and you will deliver his soul from Sheol."

Even the seculars back in the day, when we were children, understood physical discipline as the correct model to teach children to respect and obey their parents and to be considerate of others in society. The followed the biblical model not realizing where it came from because it worked well to build a respectful, helpful and kind society.

Many of us had difficulty with our children because we did the right thing according to God's principles but the schools they attended, and the churches as well as extended family came against what parents did that complied with God's Word. The children saw the world punishing spiritually and emotionally their parents and thought their parents were doing something wrong. Because the "village" influenced the children they learned to defy their parents in their teen years becoming bitter against them. This same generation treats parents with contempt except those lenient parents who accept any and all sin as long as their children want it.

Sadly these rebellious children are raising rebellious grandchildren who lack respect for anyone especially anyone who will correct them verbally.

We were raised to work together for the greater good, but our children's generation was trained by the culture to seek their own glory causing them to be uncooperative without regard for the greater good all they care about is being elevated in the eyes of others and the center of attention. The spirit of competition is greater than its ever been and working together is rarely practiced now.

We hear all the time how difficult it is to find young adults who do a good job at work and will collaborate for a more excellent purpose. The sense of "team-work" is passing away while independence is promoted. The idea of the "individual" being more important than the group, has permeated everything. God said it would be this way in the end times. This is one of the reasons I am convinced we are in the end times.

Society is looking continually for their fifteen minutes of fame even if they have to walk over others to gain it.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Difficult Times Will Come

"3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

Those who use the Bible as the standard to follow are demeaned and rejected for being legalistic, but those who reject the Bible have their own set of rules the Bible does not teach and twist the scriptures to justify their false assertions.

The idea of "legalism" has been twisted to mean adherence to the Bible. The truth of the matter is that it is not legalism to obey the scriptures, but it is legalism to obey man's rules that God never commanded. In these last days "bad will be called good and good will be called bad."

Satan has been very clever in turning the entire world into a rebellious state while lying and claiming the Bible followers are the rebellious ones.

The legalists are calling the Bible followers legalists and denying their own form of human legalism in defiance of God.

It is impossible to reason with those who have decided what they want to believe that is against God's Word, the best thing to do is walk away and encourage those who want to walk with Christ.

John 14:15-16 "15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever."

1 John 2:3-5

"By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments. If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:"

1 John 3:22-24

"and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded us. Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us."

God gives us every principle necessary to live as He wants us to live. If we love Him we love His principles and actually follow them. Those who pick and choose what they want to follow are not obeying.

Partial obedience is still disobedience.

Nothing in this World is more Frightening than hearing "Depart from Me I never knew you!

Praising the Lord for His Purposes in Suffering

Today I would like to praise the Lord for doctors!!!!! I cannot count the number of times doctors have helped me back to good health when I thought there was no hope of being normal again.

Yes, sometimes I had to wait for the answers and because I was frustrated dealing with my infirmities I groused a little with impatience. Now, I realize God was placing me in a situation in which I had to completely rely on Him as I waited for a resolution.

I have known many people in my life who died because there was no resolution but it was not because doctors didn't try, it was because it was God's will for these people to go home, that was the resolution.

I confess I am not a patient person and never have been. I like things to happen quickly but they rarely do. I have always known I was born with impatience and battled against the feeling only after I became born again.

When an idea comes to mind I want to implement it immediately. Thank the Lord for all the times He made me wait for His timing and for His perfect answer for my situation.

We know what we want but we often do not know what God's will is for us. When we get to the place where we are no longer begging God for our will and begin asking for His will, then we know there has been Spiritual maturity, especially if we have had to endure illness for a length of time.

I have had lots of illness in my life and God brought me through all of it. If anyone thinks they have never been ill because they are especially good, they might want to pray against that attitude. God may bring illness to mature their attitude. Illness helps us see our need for God and His purposes in it. It is usually after I am feeling better that I can speak so "fondly" of illness. LOL

May we see the providence of God in the middle of our trials and praise Him through them.

I thank the Lord for my husband who lavished me with empathy and help during those times of suffering.

Hallelujah!!!!

God's Perfect Order in the Body

God has His perfect order for the gathering and all believers, men and women have gifts God has given them.

1 Corinthians 12:14-27
14 For the body is not one part, but many.
15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has arranged the parts, each one of them in the body, just as He desired.
19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20 But now there are many parts, but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again, the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;
23 and those parts of the body which we consider less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and our less presentable parts become much more presentable,
24 whereas our more presentable parts have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked,
25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same care for one another.
26 And if one part of the body suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if a part is honored, all the parts rejoice with it."
27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it."