Welcome to the month of September!!!
This is the ninth month and nine is a symbolic number in the cycle of life because it is the month of birth or delivery. A baby is carried in the womb for nine months and in the ninth month the baby is born. If it exceeds nine months, then everyone starts looking at what the problem might be.
2020 has been a year of uncertainties. Many people lost loved ones, jobs, marriages, homes fell apart and others have termed this year a cursed year because plans have been distorted, delayed, etc. Amidst all these struggles, many people have lost their self esteem or self image. They can no longer understand who they are, why God allowed them to see so much hardship, others who lost loved ones seriously questioning whether or not they are children of God and if they are children of God, why did God not answer their prayers? There are other people who are suffering from the depression of being quarantined for five months, without going out to do their normal activities hence they see no reason to live again. All these came with the year 2020 and personally I wonder whether I can still trust in the promises of God for my life. This is the reason why we have decided to spend some time this month talking about your Self Image, Self identity, Self confidence, just everything about yourself that makes you struggle on the part to pursing God’s purpose for your life.
At some point in my life, I had a job at a reputable institution and I did everything I could to be at my best and meet up with the expectations of my job. Prior to that, I had worked at a few places and in these other places, I was celebrated for how I carried myself and how I performed the task I was assigned to do. So I knew I had it all together. Then I started working in this place which paid a decent salary and I kept the same drive of striving to meet goals and expectations. However, it seemed as though the more I tried, the more I was a burden to the institution. There were times where people who had been at this institution longer than me but were younger in age, lower in qualification and experience would make derogatory statements at me insinuating that they wonder whether I have the qualifications I claim to have. This really made me depressed at work and at home and I lost my self confidence. I knew I was not good at anything. Waking up every day to go to this office was a nightmare but I kept pushing because I needed the money. Till it got to the point where I could bear it no longer and I started questioning God. Can you relate to this? Sometimes it seems like it may be the path God wants to take you through to build your character and other times, you get into this position because you failed to seek divine guidance in going to the place where you are. It may also be because you are not in your place of assignment (purpose). These are a few lessons I learned on my journey.
The world is gradually opening up again after the lock down and we are passionate about people living above mediocrity and pursuing God’s purpose for their lives. As we get into this journey, we will be sharing some things God has taught us in the times where we felt we had lost it and we could not see or feel better about ourselves. Or, there was so much Self-confidence but we ended up not being fulfilled. The aim is to guide you into fulfilling your purpose on earth and becoming all God wants you to be. I will begin with the first step and more will follow in subsequent write-ups.
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Identify the problem.
In pursuing purpose, we ought to understand that low self-esteem or confidence is a problem and too much confidence is also a problem.
Romans 12:3 “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.”
The best way of dealing with a problem is identifying that there is one. In the scripture above, Paul admonishes us to be honest in the evaluation of ourselves. Most people do not know how to evaluate themselves to determine whether or not they have a self esteem issue. The best way to evaluate yourself is to humbly go to your creator and ask Him where the problem is. He has given His Holy Spirit to teach us all things even the things we do not know(John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and will guide us into all truths about ourselves (John 16:13). However, we cannot know these truths revealed by the Holy Spirit when we have not consecrated our hearts to God. We need to stop struggling to handle issues concerning our lives solely on our own and acknowledge God the father as our father and friend so that it can be easy to identify where our problem is and fix it.
I will encourage you to take that bold step today to consecrate your heart to God. Yes you know Him as God the father and creator but have you humbled yourself to actually acknowledge Him as your father? Or probably you acknowledged Him as your father but the pressures of life has taken your commitment away and this could be one of the reasons why you are having Self-esteem issues. You therefore need to rededicate your life to God. I will here by encourage all of us to spend sometime meditating on the words of Psalms 139 Here. Thereafter, we will dig deeper into how you can deal with Self-esteem or self-confidence issues.
Stay tuned and remain blessed.