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Why You Don't Have to

Wait for More Self-Esteem

Before You Draw Closer

to God!  

Many people feel afraid draw near to God because they don’t feel worthy. But is answer that these people need to "esteem" themselves until they come to the place of believing they have enough worth to come before God? They should not. That would only result in a sense of worthiness based on human pride. 

If we trust earthly sources the result is always pride in ourselves. Pride dulls our thirsty desire for God. The Bible says, "...God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6).

Consider something even less obvious, but vitally important. What would happen if a Christian came to the place of feeling good about themselves based on what they do for God, or the kindness they show toward hurting people? What would happen? These are good things to do, but we cannot allow ourselves to base our sense of goodness on anything other than the white robe of righteousness in God’s presence.

The Bible says, "I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good besides You’" (Ps. 16:2). If our sense of being good is based on what we do, even what we do for God, we need to unlearn it. We need to humble ourselves until we put on the Light that comes from God. We need to humble ourselves until we believe our good is the Spirit of God touching us.

Many people today are seeking God outside the context of the Bible. The main problem that I see in this is that some may miss this vital truth: God wants us to trust what He provides as our basis for being righteous before Him. The Bible says we should "be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil. 3:9).

God is the good shepherd. He is capable of leading people to Christ even if they seek God outside the context of the Bible. Even so, the danger is the possibility of coming to a transcendently holy God while thinking that we are good enough on our own to stand before Him. We are not. We need to trust the power of the payment Christ made with His blood to be sufficient. The Bible says, "...the gospel of God, so that...the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:16). It is our having been washed with the Holy Spirit that makes us acceptable to God. He washed you with His presence when you first became a Christian. He washed you acceptable. The Bible also says, "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior," (Titus 3:5,6). We don’t have to build ourselves up with pride before we come to Him. And we don’t have to keep punishing ourselves until we have earned our own punishment because Jesus took the punishment for us.

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I am praying for the Lord's abundant blessing on your efforts to direct your heart toward Him.

Barry.

  What About Shame? — Continued...

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(C) Barry Hall 1999

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