The Folly of Unworthiness and Pride

It is common in the world to have difficulties with the concept of worthiness. People often believe they are perfect and live that out from my place with entitlement, pride, arrogance, and selfishness or they think for themselves was worthless, scum of the earth, of no use, of little value, without hope, and low self-esteem.

Both of these extremes are erroneous because they express an assessment of self that is either overinflated or underinflated—overinflated due to thinking too highly of ourselves and underinflated, thinking too lowly of ourselves.

The issue is that when the self is left to determine worth, it will inevitably create these extremes as a reality, because the subconscious has no middle ground; there is only one or the other.  

And when we come to believe in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross we bring with us our life long understanding of our worth and it is amplified so that we either continue to focus on what a miserable worm we are, seeing our sin, the cost of the cross and it's compounds our worthlessness or we see ourselves sitting at the right hand of God perfect, full of glory, and Christ like.

And yet what is the correct response of the heart, what is the place where we have been placed, not by our works or performance or by what we think of ourselves, but where God himself has put us, how he sees us, the real us?

He calls us sons and daughters; He has adopted us into His family, chosen us from before the foundations of the earth, filled us with His Spirit, given us good gifts, declared us righteous, and given us an inheritance with the saints —eternal life.

Notice this is all about what He has done for us, not what we have or have not done for ourselves. He declared us worthy on His turns, not ours, because He has made it so through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. That should make us humble and, at the same time, grateful that He does that for us.

Unworthiness is the enemy of faith and will strip us of the action of receiving. Pride is the enemy of faith because it leads us to think we have arrived and already possess everything we need. But true faith is trust that He has done the work on our behalf and that this finished work is at work in our lives for His glory.

So don't let unworthiness steal what is rightfully yours in Christ, and don't let pride cause you to think that you have it all for it to be taken away from you. Instead, trust in Him who gives you your salvation freely in Christ Jesus and His finished work.  

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:14-17

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6

Pride or Unworthiness