I FEEL A FAILURE
(OR
I really must do something
about
my self-esteem!)
******************************************
Do you feel a FAILURE? .....excellent! Do you have NO
SELF-ESTEEM?...
that's even better!
Do you think you're WORTHLESS?...
praise God!
AM I NUTS? NO! THE BIBLE
SAYS WE ARE FAILURES, WORTHLESS
AND TO HAVE NO SELF-ESTEEM!
All that you have ever heard about
self-esteem, self-worth and self-love has been
a lie THAT YOU HAVE BELIEVED.
God doesn't want us to feel good about
ourselves, have good self-esteem or be
our own best friends.
IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING OF WHAT THE BIBLE
SAYS ABOUT MAN,
YOU DON'T HAVE A SINGLE THING THAT YOU
CAN GLORY IN!
NOT ONE SOLITARY, LITTLE THING!
..... AND UNTIL you see what the Bible says about
the nature of man AND
BELIEVE IT,
AND ACCEPT GOD'S REMEDY, your life will be one long, rocky and arduous
journey of heartaches, pain, whining, upsets, blame, insecurities, torments,
fears, sinning, murmuring, complaining, arguing, anxieties, visits to the
psychiatrist / psychologist / therapist, grumbling, tears, crying, boring your friends
stupid, depression, suicidal feelings, broken relationships and suppressed
violence ...... got the picture? Now please read on...
THE BIBLE CLEARLY DESCRIBES
MAN IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS.
IT GIVES HIM A SERVE
AND PINS
HIM TO THE WALL.
LET ME
GIVE YOU A
PREVIEW....
Think of the worst person
you've ever known and multiply that by one hundred. Combine all the characters
Idi Amin, Hitler, Pol Pot, murderers, rapists and child molesters and you'll
start to get the picture of what the Bible says what the best of us are. Take
the worst fifty words in the human language and apply that to yourself ... can
you do that? If you can't, you still don't know what the Bible says about you.
Filthy, rotten, wretched,
vile, lying, deceitful and foul smelling sinners is how the Bible describes the
best of us.
"Our RlGHTEOUSNESSES
are as filthy rags." Isaiah
64:6.
Does the Bible say our
"badness's" are as filthy rotten rags? No my friend, IT NAILS YOU TO
THE FLOORBOARDS when it says the very best, righteous, holy and most perfect
thing that you ever did is nothing more than a pile of pus contaminated, TB
infested and blood soaked pile of rags!
As you've probably
gathered, the Bible doesn't have a very high opinion of man. You've got to hand
it to the Bible ... it doesn't muck around. This goes against every popular
feel good and Christian psychology book ever written. This is why men are
against the Bible ... because it describes them with pin-point accuracy.
Now, not only does the Bible say that we could never,
can't now or ever will be able to do anything of worth, but it goes even
further to insult us and say that WE ARE BORN LIKE THIS. We are not born
good! Contrary to modern psychology, man isn't born good and worthwhile.
The Bible says that WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE BY NATURE
SINNERS (not sinners because we sin). "Oh No! Oh No! you may be saying,
that's not me, I'm not as bad as that person, I try to do good, help others
blah! blah! blah!" The Bible clearly states that we're not to measure and
compare ourselves to others (2Cor
10:12).
But people don't want to
read the Bible and believe what it says about man but instead prefer to make up
their own version of what they think it says.
THE SELF-ESTEEM MOVEMENT
Over the last twenty
years, we have seen the rise of a very powerful movement both within and
outside of the church. It can be identified by various labels such as "self-esteem,
self-worth and self-love" Regardless of the terms used, THE EMPHASIS
IS ON SELF.
People talk about feeling
good about themselves, gaining a sense of personal value and worth and
achieving their potential. Their seemingly common enemy is that of low self-esteem.
This has infiltrated society and the church to such an extent, that this is the
accepted way of thinking.
Anyone who is talking like
this is lying to you. They haven't read their Bible. Run away from them and
leave your church if that's how the Pastor is talking to you.
UNTIL YOU GET THIS YOU
WON'T UNDERSTAND THE REST OF THE PAPER .
BEFORE YOU READ ANY
FURTHER, put this paper down and go to your bookshelf and
collect all of your books that you have been reading over the last few years,
trying to make yourself feel good and loved and worthwhile and special and TOSS
THEM STRAIGHT INTO THE WHEELIE- BIN.
That's right, all those
"love yourself authors" that you've spent hundreds of dollars on -
the psychologists, psychiatrists, Peck, Copeland, Dobson, Schuller, every
motivational tape, Hagin, "smooth talking feel-good" speaker,
Lawrence Crabb, "Boundaries" by Townsend and Cloud, Narramore, Hinn,
Browne, the Christian psychologists, Joyce Meyer, Napoleon Hill, pop-psychology
book, "Ten Minutes a Day to Perfect Well-being" book, "God Wants
You to Feel Good about Yourself" book, "Think Who You Want to
be" book, "Jesus Died for You and You're Special" book. Put them
all into a big lead box, padlock the lot and heave them all into the nearest
lake.
"SHOCK! HORROR! I
MUST BE O.K. JESUS DIDN'T DIE FOR TRASH DID HE?" (you say clutching your
heart as you sink to the floor with a mild apoplexy) Yep! Yessiry! Absolutely!
No doubt about it! One Hundred percent! He sure did!
There was a book written
called "Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen to Good People." One big
problem with the book - there are no good people, never was or ever will be.
HOW DO WE TRY TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT OURSELVES?
We go to some "Christian"
motivational seminar, attend the week-end workshop on "How to Love
Ourselves" or get on our knees and plead to God to give us a break. We
read "God Says You are Worthwhile" books or undertake some mind
re-programming course. What's even worse is that we grab a bedside devotional
volume ("Five Minutes a Day with Kelwyn") and attempt to soothe our
damaged egos into some sort of fitful sleep.
The whole rigmarole
amounts to spraying some perfume onto a ten day old corpse to take the foul
smell away! Result? Mission Impossible!! Why? It can't be done.
Your attempting to make "gold" out of yourself
when by nature, you're made of base, worthless metal. It can't be done. There
were alchemists who tried to make gold out of lead. They couldn't do it then
and similarly you won't do it to yourself now.
IT SHOULDN'T COME AS ANY
SURPRISE TO YOU THEN, THAT YOU FEEL A FAILURE. THIS IS THE CONDITION OF MAN,
ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE. You are railing
against God if you feel anything else.
WHAT'S THE CAUSE?
Simple! It's sin. When
Adam sinned, it passed down through the whole human race like a computer virus
that spreads through all computers everywhere.
BUT! BUT!....
1. AREN'T WE MEANT TO LOVE
OURSELVES? NO. The Bible never says that. Jesus assumes we love ourselves
enough already so that's why He says we're to show this same kind of love to
others.
2. But all the pastors and
youth leaders can't be wrong telling us to love ourselves can they? YES, THEY
ARE!
WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?
READ ROMANS CHAPTER 7 and
you'll see how the man who wrote 14 books of the New Testament saw himself.
My dear friend, if you're
a Christian, give up all hope of ever feeling good about yourself ever again.
YOU'RE TO GET YOUR MIND OFF YOURSELF AND ONTO JESUS CHRIST AND HIS SHED BLOOD.
If you're saved you've
been lied to if you think that the Holy Spirit makes you feel good about
yourself. This is the lie of the Pentecostals and Charismatics. The Holy
Spirit's job is to convict of sin. No amount of trying to fill yourself with
the Holy Spirit to feel good about yourself will ever work in a million years.
God wants us to feel good about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done.
God wants you never to
think about yourself ever again. He wants you to:
1.Think about and love
Jesus Christ because of what He has done.
2. Love Himself (God the Father) for forgiving.you because of Jesus Christ.
3...Study the word to
show yourself .APPROVED UNTO GOD &
teach others.
4. Witness to others & preach the gospel. Instead of
going to a counsellor and trying to force the line upwards on your "I'm a
Success" graph, go to God admit you're a sinner who deserves hell and
thank Him that Jesus Christ died for your sins (failures) and take Him as your
Saviour (if you haven't done so already).
Then get to a church that preaches the CORRUPTION OF
MAN - both pre-salvation and POST-SALVATION and get out of the
happy-clappy, hand waving set.
The blood of the lamb saved you but now your flesh has to
be dealt with and the further down the Christian life you go, you start to see
what a putrid and foul mess you really are - full of sin & no hope but
Jesus. The Holy Spirit's job is to convict of sin and this is what great men
and women of God, who achieved great things for Him, found. NOTHING BUT
CORRUPTION AND FAILURE INSIDE OF THEMSELVES TILL THE DAY THAT THEY DIED.
SO MY FRIEND YOU'RE IN GOOD COMPANY IF
YOU FEEL A FAILURE. THIS IS A VERY HEALTHY FEELING FOR A CHRISTIAN. YOU WILL
FIND WHEN YOU GET YOUR MIND OFF YOURSELF AND ONTO THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS CHRIST
AND HIS SHED BLOOD, YOUR FAILURE FEELINGS MUST DISAPPEAR! GUARANTEED!
I WORRY A LOT!
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
