MADE FOR GREATNESS (6) – FIX THAT ESTEEM ISSUE
I had a roommate during my first year at the university. He would stay on long phone calls and discuss very audibly. It was mostly conversations with his mum about vacation trips outside the country that he would not want to be forced to go to or an expensive gift a relative had sent him.
We heard a lot of the conversations, but the ‘boys’ were suspicious that something was just not right. They had a game plan. One day, after one of the lengthy episodes of the phone conversation, one of the roommates hijacked his phone to check the last received or dialled call history and ascertain the veracity of his calls. We discovered he had only been pretending to receive calls. No one called him.
I still remember how he went to his bed that day quietly. We realized that some of the things he told us were lies or distorted facts. He was pretending to be who he was not.
If you will become great, you must resist the pressure of trying to become someone else. It takes a purported poor or distorted self-image to try to be who you are already. That was the error of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. The devil convinced them to believe that if they can eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will become like God. They ate it, and they discovered it was all a ruse.
He used the same trick on Jesus but He did not fall for it.
Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Matthew 4:3 NKJV
Jesus knew who He was. He did not have to prove a point of that to the devil at all. He did not fall for the trick.
I remember back then, in secondary school days, someone would draw a line and say, “If you are the true son of your father, cross this line.” Many crossed the line and got into trouble. Do you know that in maturity, it struck me that crossing the line does not change anything? Whether I cross or not, I remain the son of my father. There was no need to prove a point to anyone.
If you are not secure in your identity in God, you will seek validation for what is not missing. You are not here to prove a point. You are here to please the Lord.
That was probably one of the secrets of Paul, the Apostle. He told the Galatians:
Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.
Galatians 1:10 NLT
Get free from that bondage of proving a point. It may cost you more than you think.
Great men are secure in whom God has made them and in the process of God for their lives.
John the Baptist did not pretend to be Elijah. He also gave Jesus his well-deserved place and honour. There was no need for competition.
Do not be caught in the trap of competition and comparison. Build a healthy self-image. Know what God has said about you. Grace!
© temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa.