Self - Esteem

Can you remember being given a name that you hate as a child? Even some of us are adults but still we encounter perceptions of what people think of us. When you know or aware of what people think of or see you, you easily get discouraged and give up on who you should really be. Being a Milne Bay (Samatex) I am given the name size 28 or shortie so I will tell you how I overcome these remarks.

I learn from the people in the Bible to overcome different situations like fear, marriage crisis, sickness, sorrow, worry etc. Today for self esteem I would like to share with you on what I learnt regarding Gideon in Judges 6: 12. How we feel or what others say about us is not important. We are who God says we are. Our potential is limited only by God, and not others.

Judges chapter 6 to 8
As a young lad Gideon has seen the land oppressed by the Midianites and Amalekites for seven years. Like invading locusts, the roving bands camped on the land of the Israelites. At harvest time, they destroyed the crops and animals and plundered the farmers’ houses. Israel’s misfortune was apparently caused by their spiritual relapse into Baal worship.

Gideon was discouraged and afraid that he had to hide from the Midianites to threshed wheat in the winepress. While he was threshing wheat; the angel of the Lord appeared with strong words of encouragement: And said, "The Lord is with you, you Mighty Man of Valour." And the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this Might of Yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you." And Gideon said to him, "Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
According to Gideon’s thinking, he was the least to be considered as a leader but God believed in him and he again was the man to deliver Israel out of the hands of their enemies. All he had to do was to trust what God says about him. The angel didn’t say, “Oh, Samatex, do you know that you can be like a Papuan or a Motuan (these are certain ethinic groups in Papua New Guinea)?” “Oh, Black man, do you know you can be like the white or Asian man?” He did not even call him coward even though he was fearfully hiding away. God called him brave and mighty warrior. God never tells us what others see or never calls us what others call us. Gideon thought he was a coward because his clan was weak and he was the smallest in the family.

Too often we believe a lie. We believe that we are “no good” and worthless. Jesus says, “Not so. I came to show you that you are more than you think.” YOU ARE THE IMAGE OF GOD. God always sees what men and women only look at. God looks beyond the limits in our lives and sees what He has made or put in you. After all, He created everything including you and me. Beyond the immediate troubles God sees success, and He continues to call it forth until what He sees becomes a reality. In 2 Corinthians 4:7, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” The answer is right inside us. It’s our attitudes that make the difference. Stop agreeing with what others call you. Don’t be a prostitute because someone called you sexy, or be stupid because someone said that to you. I remember when I was called the names by my relatives and friends I responded differently. Instead of accepting what they said about me I pursued my goals. They were all shocked when I got into a cool University in UK. That was my aim to prove that I was not what people said I was. I have my mountain right now but I will overcome. Believe that you are smart and intelligent. The world will be so boring if we are all the same.
God Bless you and thank you for visiting my site. You inspire me to write!

Dad makes our world

Far away or close to me you are part of my life; my hopes, my achievements, my courage in adversity. I turn to you for encouragement and for comfort - just as I did when I was very small.

PAM BROWN. B. 1928

Come As you Are

A lot of Christians demand people to be in a certain way before they come to God and yet in my understanding of the Bible, God is not like that. God desires to bless every individual so that they can enjoy life while they are here on earth. Come as you are to the Lord with your need, and lean on His unfailing and unconditional love for you. You don’t have to pretend to be more than what you are to receive from God.
In Matthew 15:21-28 is a story of a Canaanite woman that came seeking healing for her demon possessed daughter from Jesus. She may have heard of the miracles and healings that Jesus did among the Jews. In that time only Jews addressed Jesus as son of David, so she pretended to be a Jew and called out, “O Lord, Son of David,” and Jesus ignored her. His silence made her drop her pretence and cry out, “Lord, help me!”
Only when her pretences had melted away did she see the grace of God extended to her. Jesus made a way for her to receive her miracle even though it was not yet time for the Gentiles to receive His blessings. He told her, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”
But this lady knew that dogs do eat the crumbs that fall from the masters table so she knew she could get healing for her daughter. At that time Jews consider Gentiles, dogs. Here, Jesus was trying to say that He was called to the Jews first, not the Gentiles. Yet, He loved this Gentile woman and her daughter enough to provide a loophole for them to receive their miracle.
If He was willing at that time to extend His grace to a Gentile, how much more, He can do for you now that the covenant has been fulfilled on the cross. You do not need to change the way you are to come to Him. Come as you are and His grace will touch you. If God the Father has delivered Jesus up for us, “how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32