Last week I was reading a book called Healing for Damaged Emotions and it was talking about how low self esteem is one of the major causes of emotional problems today. A lot of people don't feel that they are good enough, or capable or simply not acceptable to God or other people. Because they don't feel accepted they feel down and it has the effect of ruining their lives.

In fact in the book it quoted a survey done of married women who were financially secure. About half of these women listed low self esteem as their greatest cause for depression.

I know that its true because I often ask people for help with little jobs around the place in the church but people often say that they wouldn't be good enough to do that job. So its obvious, low self esteem ruins our opportunities, it ruins our hopes, it ruins plans and goals and it even ruins our relationships.

People will often marry or get into relationships hoping that the other person can make them feel loved. But how can that happen if they can't even love themselves. They are asking the other person to do the impossible. Then when their hopes are not realised, they get even further down, dissapointed again and the relationship becomes unbearable. Low self esteem can be a real killer.

What we need to do is to start to realise what the Bible has to say about us. It says that we are made in God's image, that we are acceptable to Him and that we are capable. Look at the guys that God used throughout the bible, none of them started out very special or qualified. So you see we can serve God and be good enough for him. God wants us to feel His love and realise that we are loved and special just the way we are. We don't have to feel unimportant because thats not true, the truth is that we are very important to God. In fact we are so valuable to Him that He made us and was willing to die on the cross to save us. We do matter to Him.

I encourage you to read your Bible and see what it really says about you and how much you mean to God. You will be surprised.

Bless you a million
Cheers
David