We have been moving right on up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs coupled with God's promises and now come to the “need for esteem”: the need to receive recognition, to feel important, and to receive respect from others and to respect ourself. In other words, the ego needs.
Many of us look to our jobs or hobbies to gain that recognition we desire, to feel important or needed, or to gain respect. Others look to fame or fortune. But it is interesting to note that anything we might use or look to in this world to satisfy our outside need for esteem can vanish in a twinkling of an eye.
Likewise, our internal self-esteem can also take a beating at the hands of others. Our inner strength can be depleted, our competence questioned, and our independence stripped until we doubt our own self-worth and lose our self-confidence and self-respect.
Therefore, it is a comfort to know that God has bestowed tremendous value on us as humans, so much so that He made us different from every other living being. We are the only ones created in His image. Man is the only living thing for which it is a sin to kill as the sanctity of human life is recorded throughout the bible. And it was only for humans that He sent His son to die.
As individuals we are no less important. Each of us was uniquely formed (Psalm 139:13-16), so much so that “the very hairs of [our] head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7).
Looking to others and other things to provide our sense of worth is a disappointment just waiting to happen. But to take our value from our creator and savior will lead us to having a happy, healthy, and very stable view of ourselves.
Many of us look to our jobs or hobbies to gain that recognition we desire, to feel important or needed, or to gain respect. Others look to fame or fortune. But it is interesting to note that anything we might use or look to in this world to satisfy our outside need for esteem can vanish in a twinkling of an eye.
Likewise, our internal self-esteem can also take a beating at the hands of others. Our inner strength can be depleted, our competence questioned, and our independence stripped until we doubt our own self-worth and lose our self-confidence and self-respect.
Therefore, it is a comfort to know that God has bestowed tremendous value on us as humans, so much so that He made us different from every other living being. We are the only ones created in His image. Man is the only living thing for which it is a sin to kill as the sanctity of human life is recorded throughout the bible. And it was only for humans that He sent His son to die.
As individuals we are no less important. Each of us was uniquely formed (Psalm 139:13-16), so much so that “the very hairs of [our] head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7).
Looking to others and other things to provide our sense of worth is a disappointment just waiting to happen. But to take our value from our creator and savior will lead us to having a happy, healthy, and very stable view of ourselves.
RSS Feed