Series: Healing For Damaged Emotions
#3 Satan's Deadliest Weapon
Jan 25, 2009
The vast majority of people believe in God, but only a small percentage of people believe in Satan. I am not quite sure why that is except that maybe God is a good guy while Satan is an evil guy, and generally we don’t like evil people. Or perhaps it is simply very convenient not to believe in Satan. Interestingly, many who purport to be Christians don’t believe in Satan as an individual being but define Satan as a kind of evil force as opposed to a Darth Vader-like personality.
Why do we, even as Christians, no longer believe in Satan while the Bible often refers to him? Maybe we don’t give Satan his due because pop culture has depicted Satan dressed in a red suit, with horns, a pitchfork and a split tail. Now that is a very realistic image of evil, isn’t it?
The Bible depicts Satan as our adversary—a liar, a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, clever, dangerous, quite wily and conniving. The Bible doesn’t speak so much of the power of Satan but rather does speak of Satan’s deceit, fraud, deception, treachery, and take-no-prisoners ruthlessness. Satan’s primary terrain is in the realm of the spirit. Paul addressed this to the Ephesian Christians by asserting that the real battle of our lives is not in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm where we battle the powers of darkness and principalities not of this world. The primary realm in which we face this battle of damaged emotions is in the spiritual realm—the realm of the mind, the soul, and the heart—the unseen spiritual realm. Satan is no nice guy and certainly not one to play with. He has no mercy, no grace, no love and not a kind bone in his body. He knows our every weakness and exploits that weakness every chance he gets. Some of his most powerful weapons are—fear, anger, doubt, worry, and guilt.
Satan’s greatest weapon however is what we call low self-esteem. Now in this whole discussion we as Christians have a conundrum, a palava. On the one hand the Bible teaches us that we are sinners not worthy to gather the crumbs under God’s table, that we are less than nothing, rotten to the core, worms in the garden of life. What is our life but a vapor—here today and gone tomorrow? Pride is our single greatest sin because it keeps us from yielding our lives to Jesus. That is true—for the ungodly, those outside of Christ, in their own righteousness and goodness. The Bible declares that “There is none righteousness; no, not one.”
On the other hand the Bible teaches that we are God’s special creation, we are his children by that creation, and “God don’t make no junk.” The Bible says that as God’s children by redemption and adoption, we can come boldly before God Himself, and that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.” That God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. That Jesus has prepared a place for us in heaven so that we can spend eternity walking on those streets of gold and skiing on the glass sea around His throne. Wow! What a dichotomy! Do you see the tension here?
Yet it is very simple in a way. The difference is in relationship. Those who do not know Jesus will be cast away for all eternity like salt that has lost its flavor, which is thrown out, being trampled on by man and beast. But those who know Jesus are a child of God, the pleasure of God in whom God delights. Pride for them is not a self-centered thing, but a God-centered sense of security and confidence, a hope and a future with every blessing of God. “For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.”
Unfortunately low self-esteem is rampant among God’s people. We see it way back in the story of the Hebrew people. Moses delivered them by God’s hand from slavery in Egypt and led them through the wilderness. Their goal, their end destination was the Promised Land. Now they are on the brink, at the east bank of the Jordan River. Moses sent scouts to check out the land. They came back and declared that the land was “flowing with milk and honey.” It was a very prosperous land, but there was a problem. They had lots of chariots and armaments. Thick protective walls enclosed their cities. The people were giants of incredible strength. Listen to the revealing low self-esteem, “We seemed like grasshoppers IN OUR OWN EYES, and we looked the same to them.” Some wanted to elect new leaders who would take them back to slavery in Egypt!
It was only Joshua and Caleb who had the confidence and self-esteem through God to urge the people to go in and take the land. “Do not rebel…and do not be afraid… the Lord is with us.” The source of their self-esteem is not in themselves, which would be sinful pride. Rather the source of the self-esteem, and confidence is in God’s presence and in His power.
With that story as a backdrop we delve into the mystery as to why so many Christians have low self-esteem. Low self-esteem is this gut-level feeling of inferiority, inadequacy, and low self-worth that shackles many, if not most, Christians. And this is in spite of wonderful spiritual experiences, the knowledge of God’s Word, and their strong faith. Low self esteem begins in the crib, follows us to grade school, and seems to worsen in high school filling us with self-doubt, and inferiority. It is something that I have struggled with my whole life so I know this demon from personal experience. In fact I am amazed at so many wonderful and strong Christians who struggle with this feeling of low self-esteem.
We are going to look at the four ways Satan uses this deadliest of all weapons in his arsenal to bring defeat and discouragement into our lives.
First, low self-esteem paralyzes your potential. This is the tragic loss of ‘what might have been’ in people’s own spiritual development, in their impact upon the people in a local church, and even their own families and children. These are the wasted gifts and talents, the lost potential and possibilities of God’s people being and doing great things for His kingdom.
Some years ago, Dr. James Dobson, a Christian psychologist, conducted a survey of Christian married women who were in excellent health, financial secure, stable children, and generally living a happy life. In this survey Dr. Dobson listed 10 sources of depression: absence of romantic love in marriage, in-law conflicts, low self-esteem, problems with children, financial difficulties, loneliness along with isolation and boredom, sexual problems in marriage, health problems, fatigue and time pressure, and aging. The results? 50% of these Christian women listed low-self esteem as number 1. 80% of them listed low self-esteem in the top 2 or 3 causes of depression. This is exactly what Satan wants for us as Christians—to so tie us up in low self-worth that we are tied down, bound up, frozen and paralyzed.
Keep in mind that we are talking here of healthy self-esteem. Too great a dose of self-esteem leads to self-pride, arrogance, snootiness, and grandiose ideas that don’t match reality. Too little a dose of self-esteem leaves us feeling worthless, useless and of no account to God, others and even to ourselves.
Second, low self-esteem destroys your dreams. One of the results of Pentecost in Acts 2 is that the young would see visions and the old would dream dreams. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to dream big dreams and to envision bold visions not for self-glory but for God’s glory and God’s Kingdom. Of how the Spirit can do great things through us that we would bear much fruit for Him. Proverbs tells us, “Where there is no vision of God, the people perish.” Pride puts the focus on us and it is all about me. A vision and dream from God puts the focus outside of us and on His Spirit to lead, guide and empower us to do mighty things for Him. I love William Carey’s philosophy of life. “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” Single-handedly William Carey opened the country of India to Christian missions by being the first modern missionary to that great people.
But if we have a low vision of ourselves and what God can do in, for and through us, then our dreams will turn to ashes, our castles will all grumble, and our fortune will turn to loss. God’s great plan for you life will never happen.
The ten Israelite spies said it couldn’t be done. It was impossible. “We are like grasshoppers” compared to them. Interesting that Joshua and Caleb saw the same people, the same armaments, and the same walled cities and said, “We can do it by God’s help.” Their observations were the same, but there perceptions were different and that lead to completely opposite conclusions. Joshua and Caleb did not win the day and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness of Sinai for another 40 years. God’s great dream and vision for His people and the whole purpose for His delivering them from slavery in Egypt had been thwarted. Can we thwart God’s purposes? Oh yes we can. Not ultimately but for the moment or even for 40 years we can be stumbling blocks to God’s will and purpose in our lives and in our church body. God was ready, the dream was ready but the people said, “It can’t be done!” Their low-self esteem led to lack of faith which did not lead them to God’s strength but rather away from God’s will and purpose.
Third, low self-esteem ruins our relationship with God and with others. If you consider yourself inferior or worthless, then it follows that God must not love you nor care for you very much. And after all, you reason, it was God who made you the way you are so it must be His fault. And in fact it becomes quite obvious to you that He loves and cares for other people more than He does for you. All of this thinking can very easily lead us to be resentful toward God. And if He treats me that way, then why so I bother to get close to Him!
Low-self esteem affects our relationships with people. Satan uses our feelings of inferiority to isolate us from other people. What happens is that you then pull away from people and isolate yourself. When you don’t love yourself, you can’t love others. When you devalue yourself you actually become self-centered, selfish, and prideful and have nothing to offer to others.
Fourth, low self-esteem sabotages our Christian service. Do you know what the first thing most people say when asked to serve the Lord? “Teach Sunday School, not me. I don’t know enough about the Bible?” “Share my testimony in worship, not me. I get tongue-tied talking in front of people.” “Work with the youth? I wouldn’t have any idea where to begin.” “Pray out loud? That would scare me to death.” Many years agoI told the Lord “There is no way that I want nor ever could be a pastor. I hate to get in front of people. I get nauseous just entering a hospital. I am not “holy” enough. I am not even close to being Billy Graham. So, go bug somebody else.” God persisted. I surrendered. And the rest is history.
God doesn’t use superstars to build His kingdom. He uses ordinary people—like you and me. Ordinary people like Moses and David. Matthew and Peter. Ruth and Lydia. Nothing sabotages God’s work more than God’s people saying, “I can’t do that!”
The good news is that in Christ we are free from low-self esteem, but like grace and forgiveness we take only bits and pieces when God wants to give us the whole pie. A merchant, selling quail, had one leg of each quail tied to a pole. Around and around the quail walked. A man walking by took pity on these quails and decided to buy them and turn them loose. The farmer cut the strings that tied the quail to the pole. Do you know what they did? They kept walking in circles. The string no longer bounf them to the pole. They were free to fly away, but they kept walking. The man tried to shoo them away only to watch them fly a few feet and continue to walk in circles.
Are you one of the quail? Freed, forgiven, a child of God, but still thinking yourself as a grasshopper, a worm, or worse? Low-self esteem is Satan’s deadliest psychological weapon keeping us the prison of self-doubt, fear and worthlessness.
Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. Through Jesus and by God’s grace and by God’s Spirit, Yes you can!