INCREASE YOUR SELF-ESTEEM

We are pre-disposed to think in a negative way. We tend to think, ‘We go about our lives trying to look good, we go to work, we arrive on time, we keep the lawns trimmed, we do the exams, but in the end all is doom. No matter what we do, God sees us as miserable worms whom he’d happily squash. Deep down we think we are nothing, we see our faults and failings and say, ‘Yes, he’s right. I am a miserable worm.’ But is this really what God says?

Enter John the Baptist, not a very conventional guy. He’s the cousin you dread; the one who turns up for Christmas dinner with a locust between his teeth, and he complements it with wild honey. Why choose a man like that to ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’?

Well, he might have been a bit weird, but he did have a healthy self-image. Listen to what he says to the people who travel far into the desert to hear his teachings, ‘After me will come one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.’

That was a job reserved for the lowest slave; no Jew would ever do that. John considered himself powerful, but not good enough to reach the lowest level of servitude. And yet he does not see himself as a ‘miserable worm.’ No, what he’s saying is, ‘I am nothing compared to God, but I am something, I have value.’
We see this again from the heavenly bird when Jesus was baptised by John in the river Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.’
Now there’s some strong language going on here: the heavens were torn open. Isn’t that the way with God? He never does anything quietly; he comes with a shout, billows roar, smoke fills the temple, there’s fire, earthquakes, noise – but this time out comes a dove! And a voice says, ‘You are my Son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.’
Even Jesus, the Son of God needed to be told ‘You are my Son whom I love,’ and if we think we don’t need to hear those words we’re mistaken.
There’s something about life that makes us feel unworthy, insignificant, a worm. But God says you’re precious, honoured, and if you’re a Christian he says, ‘You’re my child. I love you. I am well pleased with you.’
But how can that be? We know our faults and failings, sometimes we feel like a worm, a mistake and not a success story, we know who we are. In Psalm 22, the prophecy of Jesus on the cross we read, ‘I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! Everyone who sees me mocks me.’
Who became the worm, the one of no significance, the one whom people despised and mocked? Jesus did, and if he became the worm, if he took all the insignificance and the feelings of failure, what do we become?
We become the beautiful ones, for he switched places with us on the cross.
Do you feel insignificant? A failure? A mistake? Jesus says, ‘Take your eyes off the worm, look at the dove as he comes down from heaven, hear the voice saying, ‘I took your place, I died for your ugliness, accept that and you will have all my significance, and all my righteousness.’
That’s the gospel.