Managing Self-Awareness Series

Intro

Last week we introduced the subject of self-awareness. Self-awareness is a fact of life. God made us in such a way that we are aware of self, aware of our interaction with God, aware of our interaction with other people, and aware of our interaction with our environment.

The self-awareness in humans is at a higher level than that of an animal. An animal is aware of his environment, at some level he is aware of his interaction with other animals including his own species, but he does not have the spiritual equipment for awareness of a relationship with God. When God made man in his own image, he gave him an inner sense of moral accountability. Animals do not have this capacity. They may respond at correction from a human, but it is simply for their own self-preservation. They simply obey to avoid punishment or gain reward. They do not respond out of a sense of moral accountability to the Creator.

So, we begin today with the simple fact of self-awareness in the human makeup.

In last week’s message, we addressed the world’s solution for what is generally called low self-esteem. We identified some of the ways the popular self-esteem movement violates biblical truth. Humanist psychologists have developed their teaching on self-esteem. Some Christian leaders have incorporated their philosophies into their Bible teaching and have produced a Gospel of Self-Esteem. We have suggested that this teaching can be very misleading because it cannot be reconciled with biblical revelation.

Not everyone who uses the term self-esteem is preaching the Gospel of Self-Esteem. Esteem in this context simply means “the regard in which one is held.”i “Self-esteem” is a commonly used English term. The Gospel of Self-Esteem incorporates philosophies taught by Rogers and other secular psychologists and turns the focus from Christ to self. In the Gospel of Self-Esteem emphasis is on feelings rather than truth, and faith shifts from Christ and his transforming discipleship path to faith in myself and in my worth. Just because a person uses the term self-esteem does not mean they have bought into the humanistic thinking promoted by secular psychologists.

Having cautioned against those errors, we realized a need to address, at least briefly, what the Bible teaching about managing our self-awareness. We all want to feel good about ourselves. When we are thinking right about who we are and what we are doing, we are generally more effective in life and people are more affirming in their response to us. There is nothing wrong in wanting to have a healthy self-awareness. Our contention with the Gospel of Self-Esteem revolves around how we attain that.

What do we do when we don’t feel affirmed about ourselves? How is a problem of low self-esteem resolved biblically? WebMD says, “Low self-esteem is when someone lacks confidence about who they are and what they can do. They often feel incompetent, unloved, or inadequate.”ii

The focus tends to be on these FEELINGS of incompetence and inadequacy. A problem with the world’s solution is that they target the feelings without adequately dealing with truth.

They generally understand that feelings are a product of thoughts. So, they correctly counsel people to managing the feelings by managing the thoughts. But their advice does not anchor solutions in biblical truth. Therefore, they tend to treat the feelings (symptom) rather than the source of the problem. If I am in wrong relationship with God, my problem is sin and rebellion. I have to deal with that in order to find a lasting solution. I can’t just find ways to think more highly of myself. I have to repent and get my relationship with God right.

Every good doctor knows that just treating symptoms is an inadequate way to practice medicine. The symptoms provide clues as to what may be wrong. But the doctor must prob deeper, perhaps have lab work done or x-rays to discover what is causing those symptoms. He does not just treat the symptoms. He discovers what is causing those symptoms, treats that problem, and as a result, the negative symptoms subside.

It could easily take a whole book to deal with the subject we have embraced this morning. Our goal is to at least give some guidance from Scripture on how we proceed toward enjoying healthy self-awareness. We will address three biblical truths that will help us move in the right direction toward that objective.

1. SEEK THE TRUTH, RATHER THAN A FEELING.

The solution must begin with the truth. In John 8:32 Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”iii He did not say, “you shall feel better, and those positive emotions will set you free.” God has provided truth in his word that enables us to make sound objective decisions about life. If we start there, we can get to a positive end result.