Feelings of insignificance breeds low self-esteem.
Our Heavenly Father never intended any of us to have low self-esteem or to feel insignificant in any way. He created us ALL to feel good about ourselves and to succeed in everything we do. But yet, so many of us, who find ourselves in disappointing situations, also find ourselves dealing with low self-esteem and feelings of insignificance.
Many of us think if we're not making a lot of money, if we're not being noticed by, what we think is all the right people, that we are somehow, insignificant. But when you think about it, what can money and popularity really do for our spiritual walk? And our spiritual walk is what we are to be most concerned with, not so much our earthly walk.
Having money and notoriety does NOT cause God to love us any more or any less. And the really important thing here to remember is that we don't rely on these types of "things" to give us the self-esteem we need or the feeling of "being significant." This can be dangerous to our spirituality.
Realize and visualize:
Brother and sisters, we need to realize that as Christians, self-esteem is something we should acquire from God and knowing who we are in God. Jesus was a carpenter in the natural but in the super natural He was more than that. He was King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus knew where He came from and where He was going. He knew what He was sent here to do and He fulfilled His call. If we could visualize ourselves the way Jesus visualized Himself, we would come away with a different point of view, about ourselves, and our place in life. We are SOMEBODY in God.
Helping others helps us:
To feel good about our own self, and to feel significant, helping others plays a key roll. Jesus helped others. We should follow His lead. And besides, aren't selfish and uncaring people the most miserable people you have ever seen? Let us NOT become selfish and unfeeling to the needs of others, our self-esteem depends on it. We don't want to become a Scrooge now do we?
This Christian walk is NOT a popularity contest:
Although Jesus was rich Spiritually and drew a crowd wherever He went, His goal wasn't to be popular or wealthy. Actually, He was more concerned with helping people like I just pointed out in the paragraph above. And He preferred to do it quietly and away from public view.
I must tell you I have found people who put popularity at the top of their priority list for acquiring self-esteem, later find themselves, wallowing in self-pity. As Christians, self-esteem is something we shouldn't try to obtain from the world's point of view but from, as I have already said before and may even repeat again before this article is finished, KNOWING WHO WE ARE IN GOD. This is NOT about winning a popularity contest. This is about winning the spiritual race that is set before us through God.
Hebrews 12:1 says this, Let us lay aside every weight, (I believe feelings of insignificance can be a weight)
and the sin which doeth so easily beset us, and run with patience this race that is set before us.
Let us not stoop to the level of worldliness to find our place; let us kneel at the cross of Calvary instead.
Understanding our place is important:
Many of us believe that we have to be rich and famous to hold a significant place in life. Many of us think; if I'm not a millionaire, a movie star or have my own talk show I am a failure. Now this type of thinking is totally and completely worldly. We need to understand our place in life is important and significant to God. Did not Jesus lay down His life for us all; the poor and the rich, the unknown and the well known, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the not so beautiful; He didn't have to be paid to die for our sins, He just simply did it. If He put that much value on our lives, shouldn't we? Of course we should. But what we do, instead of listening to what God has to say about us, we listen to what others say and what we think about ourselves. This is so piteous.
Accepting our place is vital to our significance:
We all have a place in life in which to occupy because Jesus said, "occupy until I come." There are NO insignificant people in His eyes. We are all equals and God has called us ALL to do something. We need to accept our place in Him, whether its singing and preaching to millions on TV everyday, or singing and preaching to 40 on Sunday Morning. If we are using our work for the Lord just to get on TV and get noticed or to get some kind of recognition, we are WRONG anyway. We need to just simply accept our place and quit worrying so much about becoming a celebrity.
Setting healthy goals is important:
Many of us set unhealthy and unattainable goals for ourselves and when these goals collapse, there goes our self-esteem and feelings of significance right along with them. We either set our goals too high or too low.
Too high:(Reaching for the Stars)
Sometimes we reach for things that God never intended for us to have. He does know best. We need to pray and seek Him on what He wants us to do with our life and what He has for us.
Too low:(Not Reaching for Anything)
We don't set any goals for fear of not being able to obtain them; therefore we don't accomplish anything. And this is too often the cause of low self-esteem and feelings of insignificance.
And finally...
Hanging out with the wrong crowd:
When we get around people who are materialistic and worldly, and all they want to talk about are the things they have or the things they are gonna get, it causes us to lose focus and start dwelling on things WE DON'T HAVE any business dwelling on. We get to thinking about the things we don't have instead of the things WE DO HAVE. On things WE HAVEN'T ACCOMPLISHED instead of on the things WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED. The Word of God tells us plainly in 2 Cor. 10:12 that those who compare themselves with others are NOT wise.
When other people make us feel bad about ourselves, and those feelings of insignificance start taking their toll, we need to part-company with them, then and there. Sometimes people just have an arrogant spirit on them and there is nothing left to do, but walk away.
Conclusion:
Let us take heed to a word of wisdom from Paul, who says in Philippians 4:12-13: Forgetting those things which arebehind, (past failures and problems that make us feel bad about ourselves), and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Keep pressing on through all those insignificant feelings the enemy throws your way and realize...YOU ARE SIGNIFICANT TO GOD!
