Blog

by Ami Samuels

Several years ago, I was preparing a presentation for a speaking engagement and I was letting the “What if”s get the best of me.

What if I can’t finish my outline? What if I mess up? What if my presentation isn’t good enough?

I went to my ladies Bible study and shared what I was experiencing. The leader of our group asked me a question that caught me off guard. She asked me, “What do you think about someone who is prideful?”

I thought for a moment and I replied, “When we are prideful, we aren’t glorifying God, but self.”

To which she said, “Really? Because I am getting a sense of false humility or self-doubt from you. False humility means to have a self-defeating mindset and poor self-image, evaluating oneself too harshly. This way of thinking is as at out of balance as pride.”

This got my attention because my first thought was, “No, it’s not.”

But as she finished I saw she was right. She said, “That pride and self-doubt are both focused on SELF not GOD.”

Wow! That is true. We tend to think of pride as self-centered and self-promoting, and we try to disguise self-doubt as humility.

Pride says, “I can do this myself, I don’t need God’s help!”

Self-doubt says, “I can’t do this, I’m not good enough, and God can’t use me!”

Our focus should always be on God, not ourselves, what he is calling us to do, and who he is calling us to reach.

The next time we find the “What if”s creeping in or a sense of self-doub,t we need to redirect our thoughts to God and what he is calling us to do, taking our attention off of our self and place it on God. Stop allowing this negative thinking to imprison us from the life God is calling us to.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.