“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (NIV James 4:1-3)

The desires that battle within produce arguments and make us feel alone. Unfortunately our modern obsession with praise hunger and praise hunting, stirs the inner pot of resentment leaving many feeling undervalued, deprived and feeling like life has short-changed them!   If we seek our value in coveting praise then we will feel angry if we don’t get it. We might feel we deserve praise but none is on offer or worse someone makes us feel like trash. Then the feelings of hostility start to rage within. As the inner flames burn it pushes others away, leaving us alone.  No-one likes sidestepping emotional landmines!

If we find our self-esteem in one big treasure hunt for praise than we will open our lives up to resentment, anger, fighting and in the end a deep feeling of isolation and loneliness.  The fruit of self-worship is loveless lives and feelings of isolation from God and others.

In November of 1985, I began to see the plight of the poor. I was walking down the streets of Bangkok, Thailand, and one beggar after another asked for money. A man with one leg, a child with just stumps for legs, an old woman, and then an old man. I felt uncomfortable and shocked at the parade of beggars. However, in Thailand, the poor have no social security and live hand-to-mouth, begging for a little just to survive. I remember praying, God, why are there so many poor? Why do so many suffer?

Deep in thought, I approached my hotel and bought a Bangkok newspaper written in English. I went to my room, sat on the bed, and started to read. As I flicked the pages, a headline jumped out at me.

“Enough food to feed the world for two years.”

As I read, I discovered that in 1985, the world had a glut of wheat. There was enough wheat to feed the world for two years without planting another grain. But the article went on tell the sad story that much of the wheat would go to waste because poor countries did not have the money to buy the grain.

Here in newsprint was the answer to my prayers for wisdom. Though nature, God had provided in abundance. However, because of the monetary system, God’s gracious gift of abundant grain did not go to the poor. At the time, one-third of the world’s population was starving.

That day my understanding of poverty changed. Money, not God, was the problem. Neither were the poor to blame. It was the greedy hoarders who would rather see the grain go to waste then give it to starving people. Those who controlled the grain did not value human life but loved profit. The number-one motivation for those chasing mammon is the prize of profit and a wish to feel superior.

It all comes down to a simple formula of equity and value. Without the inequality of globalization in trade, business in the Third World would be financial stupidity. Cheap labor drives business; without the poor worker, it would be foolishness to ship goods around the world. The merchant must be able to sell the goods at a profit. Here lies the problem: it’s all a question of value.

To make money, we must buy goods from people who make the item at a low cost. To produce a cheap product, the manufacturer has three courses of action. He can use low-cost labor, make the workers labor harder, or use smarter manufacturing. In the third world, the first two choices are the easiest and preferred choices. As a consequence, the cost of labor becomes the cost of a person. Often, in these countries, overpopulation means the workers have to discount their value in order to get work. It is this global inequity that creates structural poverty in First-World, developing, and undeveloped countries. It is all a question of value. The poor man might work for pennies an hour while the wealthy westerner could earn thousands of dollars an hour.

The praiseworthy believe prosperity is their right as good, decent people. They are happy to buy cheaply, seldom thinking about the income of the poor man who made the article. It is their right to buy, to have, and to hold. The treasured article’s cheap cost serves and blesses them. Underpinning the purchase is a feeling of entitlement, an attitude that ignores others’ hardships and insists on one’s own privilege.  To learn more see chapter 11 of Grace V Self- Esteem

Is Self-esteem a counterfeit of Grace?

The Bible says we are saved by grace, the “unmerited favour of God.” Nothing states our value more than the cross; Jesus suffered and died for our sins. God values us by grace; nothing we can do can make God love us more or less.  Jesus picked up the account and paid for our sin (short comings) on the cross. However, self-esteem has us chasing our value in the praises of the crowd, forever enticing us to seek our value in our appearance, achievements and material trophies. The devil calls each of us to love the praises of the mob and to self-worship. (Romans 3:9-31, Matt 4:8-11, 1Peter 5:1-11)

Did you know Self-esteem in practise is false worship?

The Ten Commandments are straight forward; the first command says we are to only worship God and him alone. The second command forbids worshiping anything but God!!!!  Don’t worship anything but God, every image is forbidden.  God made us to love and worship him, all praise belongs to God. However, we can misuse praise in false worship and this produces suffering and social problems (Exodus 20:1-4, Matt4:8-11, Deut 32:17)

Is Self- esteem bad for you?

Apart from blinding people to their true value in God, it encourages young people to find their value in the praises of people or in self-worship. An unfortunate side effect of directing worship away from God is the curse of Exodus 20:1-4. The curse is really a natural consequence of misusing worship and it produces considerable social problems. The book “Grace v Self-Esteem” shows how hungering and hunting for praise is linked to violence, abuse of others, addictions, sexual abuse, depression and suicide.

Did you know Self-esteem teaching is bad for the world?

Self-esteem teaching has made the western world extremely image focused, making it into the most image crazy age in history. The book “Grace v Self-Esteem” explains how this culture of self worship (self-esteem) has made us in the western world arrogant and self indulgent; feeling superior we greedily covet, abuse the poor and wage war on the environment by over consumption.

You can learn more in the book: Grace v Self-Esteem by Brett Glover

www.gracevselfesteem.com