When We Feel Inferior

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, January 19th. God sees you as a person of great worth. Stay with us to hear how Christ is the source of our strength when we feel inferior. One of the greatest barriers in our life to achievements, to relationships, good relationships, or the real genuine contentment in life is what we feel about ourselves. And those feelings can either be very helpful or they can be absolutely devastating. So when a person has feelings such as feelings of inferiority, they're going to affect everything about your life. They're going to affect you in your job, in your home, with your children, with your friends, things that you'd like to accomplish, places that you'd like to go. It's going to affect every single area of your life. Feelings of inferiority are absolutely devastating.

And what I want to do in this message is talk about just that. The title of this message is The Source of Our Strength When We Have Feelings of Inferiority. Notice I didn't say when we are inferior, but when we have feelings of inferiority. Now there are lots of verses of Scripture, but I want you to turn first of all to Ephesians chapter two, one verse of Scripture in this passage, and that's verse ten.

He says, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. There is emotional baggage that people carry in their life, don't even realize they carry it, and all of their life it is a detriment. It is a handicap. It is an obstacle to what God wants them to become, what God wants to achieve and to accomplish in that person's life. So I want us to look at the source of this and begin by simply saying this. That one of the sources of our feelings of inferiority, which means feeling less than, feeling that we don't measure up. That some of those things come first of all from our early childhood.

And let me say this right up front. No child was ever born with feelings of inferiority. Children learn to feel inferior, and most children learn to feel inferior from their parents or someone in those early ages of their life. That's one way to create feelings of inferiority.

A second way is comparisons. And so if you've had brothers and sisters in your family, more than likely, some of you may have felt. Now I know my mom and dad love me, he's the favorite.

She's the favorite. And oftentimes parents will say, well now, you know, if you were like your brother, devastating. It says you're less than. You don't measure up, poor quality. And some parents try to live their lives through their children. And that's why they push them and push them and push them. And oftentimes the mother wants to dress them up and make them look like a queen all the time because she never felt like one. And not feeling like one now, she's just trying to push her daughter on. Sometimes they don't even let kids grow up. They just push them from about six to adulthood.

Then they wonder why the kids get so frustrated and messed up in life. Because mom shoved her too far. Father pushed him too far.

Listen, boy, when I was down there, I was out on the field and I was always there. Maybe this kid could care less about sports. But father's pushing and shoving. And so what happens is either by verbal criticism or by verbal comparison, a child learns very early in life to feel inferior. But that's not the only way that happens.

For example, sometimes it's physical things. Here's a person who has some kind of physical deformity that's very evident to everybody. And so they, listen to this, they feel inferior. You're not going to hear me say they are inferior. They feel inferior because they can't pass a ball, hit a ball, whatever it might be. They can't participate in sports. Or they can't do other things other people can do.

Or they have some kind of physical deformity that maybe not, may not be all that good looking. And so they feel inferior. And so these feelings of inferiority are devastating oftentimes. And so it hinders our relationships with each other and our accomplishments and achievements in life.

Because if you feel that you're less than, that you're of poorer quality, that you don't measure up, no matter what you do in life, it is going to affect those relationships, your work in every single area. But there's a wonderful answer to all these things. And it's right here in this tenth verse. So I want you to go back, if you will, to this tenth verse. Notice what he says. He says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that you and I should walk in them.

Now I want you to look at this. He says, we are his what? Workmanship. Whose workmanship?

God's workmanship, which God prepared when? Beforehand that we should walk in them. Now, so I want to say three things primarily here that I think if you'll listen to and apply to your heart, it'll make a difference. It can start making a difference before you walk out of this place.

What is the answer to this? The first step to healing with feelings of inferiority as a believer, taking that you already are saved, because that's step number one. But having put that behind us, what is the first step? The first step is to get God's viewpoint of me. To get God's viewpoint of you. What's his viewpoint?

Here's his viewpoint. God says you are his workmanship and that word means masterpiece. Now you say, don't give me that I'm not a masterpiece. You're not? Are you saying that God made a mistake when he made you?

No, he didn't. You say, I don't look as good compared to whom? You see, God made all of us unique, different. And the wonderful thing is, listen, the wonderful thing is that he made us all different.

So he didn't make a long line of folks like you. Then you may have some reason to compare yourself. But since he made you uniquely different, there's nobody you can compare yourself with.

Because God didn't intend for anybody to be like you. You're his workmanship. That is, he created you.

Now you say, well, look, what about these people who have deformities and all kinds of problems? Listen, he says he created us for his purpose. Now his purpose in one person's life may be a short life and a difficult life.

For somebody else it'd be totally different. He made us for his purpose, therefore I can't compare myself with anybody else. He says you are his workmanship. God created you uniquely you for his purpose. And if you let the world's bombardment of all of its commercialism drive out of your heart and mind God's viewpoint of you, you're going to be trapped. And you're going to live your life trapped by the world's vain, empty, erroneous, false, counterfeit philosophy.

They don't have any answers. That's why they've got to have more and more, bigger and bigger, and the comparisons and all of these things. It's all a matter of human decisions. He says we're his workmanship. That means you are somebody. And that word also means part of its connotation means persons of notable excellence. Has nothing to do with beauty, riches or where you live. It has to do with who you are. It is who you are in your relationship to God. He says you're his workmanship. You don't have to compare yourself to anybody because he made you uniquely you. So first of all, I need to understand God's viewpoint about myself. I'm His, created for His purpose. The second thing I need to understand is I need to understand God's love for me.

When I understand God's love for me, something happens to feelings of inferiority. Now how much does He love you? Well, you might say, well, I know that He loves me. I'm absolutely sure of that. And so there's no question in my mind about that mentally. But if you ask me if I feel loved by God, that may be a different question. So let's talk about this for a moment. God loves you enough to have sinned His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die on the cross on behalf of your sins.

Now you've heard that so many times, it runs in one ear and out the other probably. But think about it for a moment. God didn't have to. And He had you in mind when He sent Jesus Christ into this world to die for your sins in mind. He loves you enough that He sent Jesus who died on the cross and paid your sin debt so that you could be free.

Listen, so you could be made righteous. And then He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell you so you could become the person God wants you to be. He made you competent. He put you in the body of Christ in salvation and made you belong. He sent the Holy Spirit to live within you to make you competent to do anything He wanted you to do. And in the death of His Son, He declared your value.

You're so valuable to me, I'm willing to give my Son. Now, how much He loves us, most of us don't know so. I want you to turn to John fourteen. I want you to look at these verses for a moment. John fourteen. I want you to look at these verses now because you've read them, but probably it's never dawned on you what one of these verses says.

Another passage here. In John fourteen, in verse twenty-one, He says, He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father. And I will love him and I will disclose Myself to him. He says, My Father's going to love us. The Father's going to love us and Jesus is going to love us. Look in verse twenty-three. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.

That is, we'll live on the inside of them. Look in chapter fifteen. Chapter fifteen. Look if you will in verse nine. Just as, just like, the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you and abide, therefore abide in My love. He says, listen, you know how the Father loves Me? Jesus said, that's the way I love you. How do you suppose the Father loved the Son?

Absolutely perfectly. Listen, the Father loved Jesus absolutely with all the infinite love that God can love. What does He say? Just like the Father has loved Me, I've loved you. So He says, live and rest and abide and dwell in My love.

The Bible says that you and I are the sons and daughters of God. You know what He says? He says, just like the Father has loved Me, that's the way I love you.

He says, so rest in My love. Now think about this. Would the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you and Me enough to give His life for us, would He allow you and Me to be made inferior? Absolutely not. God doesn't make inferior anything.

Nothing. Verse ten says, if you keep My commandments, you'll abide in My love. You'll rest in My love.

You'll dwell in My love. Just as I've kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. Now, I want you to go to the seventeenth chapter. Seventeenth chapter is Jesus' prayer. Listen to what He prays. Verse twenty-three, John seventeen, I in them and thou in Me, this is He's praying to the Father now, and thou in Me that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that thou didst send Me, and that you love them even as you did love Me. You know what that says?

That God the Father loves us just like He loved the Son. Let me ask you a question. Was Jesus in any way inferior? Nope. Do you think God would make you and Me inferior?

No. You cannot find one single solitary verse in the living revelation of God to declare that anybody has been created inferior. Look at this. Verse twenty-four, Father, I desire that they also whom thou has given Me be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory which you have given Me. For you did love Me before the foundation of the world. Oh, now watch this.

Look at this. First of all, Jesus said, I love you just like the Father loves you. Then He said, the Father loves you just like He loves Me. And the Father started loving Me before the foundation of the world. When did He start loving you and Me before the foundation of the world? Would a holy, righteous, heavenly Father who loves you and Me enough to come and live on the inside of us, who loves us as much as He loves His only begotten Son, create you and Me inferior?

And the answer is absolutely not. One last thing. First of all, I need to get God's viewpoint of myself. He doesn't create anything inferior. Secondly, I need to understand, get His viewpoint of how much He loves me, just like He loves His Son. And thirdly, I need to understand God's expectations of me. If I understand His viewpoint of me and I understand His love for me and can grasp that and I understand His expectations of me, my feelings of inferior are going to leave. Now what are His expectations? First of all, He doesn't expect me to be perfect. He doesn't expect any of us to be sinless. You know what His expectations are?

Not nearly what we think they are. God doesn't have some standard up here saying, I'm just waiting for you to get there. Listen, He didn't say, my adults, if you sin against God, He said, my what?

My little children. You know what that says to me? I can look at a child and know what God expects of me.

A little child has to learn to walk, stumbles and falls down. You remember, even when you're a teenager, you failed sometime and you hurt yourself and cut yourself and we're still making mistakes, we get to be adults, we still falter and fall. God knows you're not going to be sinless. He's not even expecting us to be sinless. You know what? He knows that you're not going to do the right thing every single time.

We're not even going to do things right every single time. You know what? He doesn't expect us to. Because, you see, by the grace of God, He provided for loving you and me through anything, all things and everything, no matter what. You know why? He knows that you and I live in these physical bodies and they have five senses and we're attemptable and we'll be tried and tested and we'll falter and we'll fall, we'll make mistakes.

You know what happens? Every time we fall, make a mistake, a sin against Him, we get up and we get up cleansed with the blood of Jesus and keep moving. If you're waiting until you can please God, I'm here to tell you you will die in the condition you're in. You're not going to be able to please Him the way your feelings of inferiority would cause you to want to believe that somehow I've got to measure up. One of these days I'm going to get there.

When is that? What are you going to have to do to get there? You see, when I understand what His expectations are, I can relax. And what are His expectations? Two things. God only has two expectations of me. And if you can grasp His viewpoint of view and grasp the fact of how much He loves you and grasp the fact of what His two simple expectations are, you can leave those feelings of inferiority right now.

What are they? Just two things. He expects me to trust Him and to follow Him.

That's all. He says, what about loving Him? Well, if I trust Him, I will love Him. If I'm following Him, it's because I love Him. That's the wonderful, wonderful part.

It's that third part of the triangle. What does He expect? He just expects me to trust Him and to follow Him. You know what? He doesn't expect me to measure up to anybody else's expectations.

Just trust Him and follow Him. Feelings of inferiority. I want you to be sure you get this. If you're listening, say, amen. Feelings of inferiority are the result of a decision you and I make. We accept them as true or we choose to know that they're alive. It's a decision you make.

And here's how important this is. No matter who you are, your past, your present, you have the privilege right now to say, Father, I want to thank You today that You've made me the way I am. You don't make any mistakes. You don't make any junk.

You don't make anything inferior. You've made me this way. I want to thank You for loving me enough to give me the skills and talents and abilities I have in life. I want to thank You, Father, for loving me as much as You love the Son. Thank You for giving Jesus Christ for me to live on the inside of me and the Holy Spirit to enable me to achieve and to accomplish and to do anything You want me to do. I just want to thank You that You've made me the way I am. And I want to thank You that I'm not inferior to anybody, that I'm Your son, Your daughter, and I'm the best You can make me to be. And I just want to thank You because what I want to do is I just want to trust You and follow You and rest in a wonderful love that I know is directed toward me. You love me, Father.

So I don't have to be inferior or feel inferior to anybody about anything. I'm just the wonderful me that You made and You're working on me. And, Father, I know that we've got a long ways to go, but You said You weren't going to give up on me and I'm not giving up on You. And so I just want to thank, I'm just going to leave all my feelings of inferiority right here today. And I accept who I am in Christ. I accept that I'm uniquely made. I accept that I'm fully loved.

And I accept that I am going to make mistakes, but I'm perfectly loved even through them all. Thank you for listening to When We Feel Inferior. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.