Self Esteem –
1. If your friends were to use three words to describe you, what would they say?
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2. How do you rate your self-esteem on a scale of 1-10?
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3. Do you think you have a big ego? __________________
4. What do you think the Bible says about self-esteem and ego?
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Today’s Reading
John 3:22-30
Background – Jesus started his traveling and preaching on Earth when he turned 30. John the Baptist was the Prophet who announced the Coming of Christ, preaching in the wilderness and telling people to repent, because the Kingdom of God is at hand. In other words, he was telling the Jewish people that the Messiah was now about to come (as the Bible had predicted in the Old Testament). His preaching and prophesies had made him very popular and people were coming to him to repent and be baptized. Popularity and having lots of friends around you are things that can often cause pride and our ego to get inflated.
5. What did John say about the people who were now going to Jesus to be baptized?
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6. What did John say about being Christ?
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7. What did John mean in verse 30?
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The world puts a big emphasis on self-esteem. We are constantly encouraged to love ourselves more and that we “can’t love anyone else until we love ourselves first.” The Bible of course does not agree with the world and instructs us let our pride go and put God at the forefront of our thinking and decisions. To have a right relationship with The Lord we must be able to humble ourselves and follow His Word over our own ideas or what our ego tells us to.
The Bible and Pride
James 4:6
8. How does God feel about proud people?
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9. When you are in a social situation where you have to let your pride go and decrease your ego for God, how hard is it on a scale of 1-10?
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Philippians 2:3
10. How should we feel about others?
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11. How often do you treat people this way? (Circle One)
Often Very Often Rarely Never
Psalm 51:5
12. What does the Bible say about how our nature is?
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Jeremiah 17:9
13. According to this verse is it good to just follow our hearts? ______________
14. Why not?
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15. How often do you hear to “just follow your heart”? (Circle One)
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often
Romans 3:23
16. What does this verse say about people’s morality?
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The Bible and Self-Love
For all our talk of Self-love in magazines, TV shows and school, the Bible never sees this as a problem. God knows we love ourselves. The problem is we love ourselves too much!
Matthew 22:36-39
17. How much should we love our neighbors?
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John 13:34-35
18. How can people identify us as Christians?
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19. How often do you find yourself showing love to people around you like Jesus showed to you?
Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often
Romans 5:8 , 1 John 3:16
How do we know God loves us?
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2 Corinthians 5:17
20. Why can we feel good about who we are according to this verse?
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Proverbs 3:26
21. Where do we get our confidence from?
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Philippians 4:13
22. How can we accomplish things in life?
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There’s nothing wrong with feeling good about who you are, when you know that Christ is the one who saved you, takes care of you and supports you through every challenge you face. Put God at the head of your life and let your pride and ego take a back seat. So whatever your self-esteem number is, if it’s not because of God, you need to lower it. We must decrease so He can increase!
