Self-Esteem Struggles: Why God Still Uses the Unqualified

Editor’s note – Poor self-esteem rarely makes it into a sermon, yet it quietly shapes how many believers respond when God calls them to something hard. The author traces that struggle through Moses, Gideon, and Saul to show that feeling unqualified is not a modern complaint but a Biblical one. We’re running this piece because it meets readers where doubt actually lives – not in what they’ve done, but in who they believe they are. Her answer, as Scripture bears out, was never self-confidence. It was trust in the One who calls.

Moses’ Unlikely Rise

God does not play favorites, but if He did, Moses would certainly qualify as God’s pet. Consider his history and life. Thousands of other little boys around him were drowned and murdered, but he survived. His life was entrusted to a reed basket and a dangerous river, and who discovered him?

Oh yes, you’ve guessed it. It was none other than Pharaoh’s daughter. Now, who would she choose to take care of him and to nurse him? Wouldn’t you be surprised to know that it happened to be his very own mother? In my book, this would qualify as preferential treatment.

Think about it. Here was a little Jewish boy, an unwanted child in Egyptian society. He was hidden for a while and then left for Providence because his mother could no longer protect him. After he was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter, he went from being a foundling to royalty in the blink of an eye.

Moses was brought up in a privileged and affluent society. He enjoyed the best that money could buy. It is clear that God had a special purpose for this young man. When we look at Moses’ story, who can blame us for thinking, “This is the life!” You may wonder, “What has this got to do with me?” I am so glad that you asked!

Editor’s note – It’s worth pausing on how ordinary Moses’ early life actually was before Pharaoh’s daughter intervened. He was a condemned infant hidden in a basket, not a boy born to greatness. The turn in his story came entirely from outside him, which is exactly the point the author wants us to sit with.

God has a Plan

Your life may be filled with just such “incidental” situations. When you look back on your life and your own history, you will be able to identify unique and special experiences, much like those Moses had. You may not have grown up in a palace, and you may not have been able to pick and choose whatever your heart desired. Perhaps you never had the opportunity to study. You may fall short of the standards of the world. Life may have turned its back on you a long time ago. Hope is a foreign concept to you.

You live in dire circumstances, the same conditions in which you were raised. You may even believe that you will die in these circumstances. Do not believe the lies of the enemy! God has so much better in mind for you! Your environment and circumstances do not determine who you are! Do not allow your past to determine your future. God can, and will, use your circumstances to shape you into a unique instrument in His hands. Your circumstances have contributed to the shaping of your character.

Give your life and your circumstances to God and allow Him to use them for His honor. Renew your mind. Allow God to show you how He can take ostensibly negative things and turn them around for good in your life. God did not love Moses more than He loves you. He had a unique plan for his life, but it was not better than the plan He has for you. He has a unique plan for your life as well. Dare to step out in faith and say to God, “Here I am. Let Your will be done in my life.”

What is your response? Are you thinking, “Who am I that God would consider me?” Do you know, if that is your attitude, you find yourself in good company? Moses was equally unwilling (Exodus 3:1-4:17), and he was not the only one. Gideon had the same reaction (Judges 6:11-15). They had no sense of their self-worth.

Moses raised another objection to God: "Master, please, I don't talk well. I've never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer...Oh, Master, please! Send somebody else!" [Exodus 4:10-13]

Gideon said to him, "Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan's the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the runt of the litter." [Judges 6:15]

Moses and Gideon were not the only Biblical characters who responded in this way. Saul had a similar reaction: “Saul answered, ‘But I’m only a Benjamite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and from the most insignificant clan in the tribe at that …'” (1 Samuel 9:21).

God did not condemn or reject any of them. He has such patience with us. He does not give up easily. Jonah is a good example of God’s patience with us.

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh! Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are." But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the Lord. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape from the Lord. But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the Lord flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to send them to the bottom. [Jonah 1:1-4]

Editor’s note – Notice that none of these men were rebuked for their hesitation. Moses, Gideon, and Saul each doubted their own worth, and God simply kept calling anyway. That pattern says as much about His patience as it does about our tendency to underestimate ourselves.

Trust

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that God will simply forget about you and leave you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life, and He will do His utmost to ensure that you fulfill it, even if it costs a storm. I am not advocating that God will send a hurricane to punish you. God is good, and He does good. He loves you so much that He will do everything in His power to keep you from going astray. Nevertheless, the ultimate choice and decision remain yours.

When we rebel against God and choose against His will for us, we create immense problems for ourselves. His plans for us are good and not bad. He wants us to have hope and a future.

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. [Jeremiah 29:11]

Don’t argue with God over your calling and appointed task. If He called you to do something, He will equip and enable you to accomplish it. He never expects you to do something in your own strength. This is the secret to life: trust in God. He is our source. He is the source of everything we need. Remember, God’s plans and His purpose for your life are always greater than what you can accomplish in your own strength.

If you choose to trust in God and to follow where He leads you, you will be able to perform wonderful deeds and miracles, just as Moses and Gideon did. It is not you (or them) who can do it, but God. It is the Spirit of God who lives in you that enables you to fulfill God’s commands and to honor His Name.

God promises that He will work all things together for good for those who love Him. He will turn difficult circumstances around to achieve positive results. (Read Genesis 38-50 to see an illustration of God’s favor in a challenging environment.) Nothing is impossible for God. Give your negative circumstances to Him. Give Him your past. Lay down all your faults, misdeeds, sins, failures, forgotten dreams, disappointments, sorrow, guilt, and your lack of faith and hope at His feet. He can use all the bad experiences of your past to create a good future for you. Ask Him to show you how to mine for gold among the rubble. Decide now that you will trust God, no matter how dismal your current situation, and stand by your decision.

If you find yourself in inhospitable circumstances and on stony ground, ask God to lead you to peaceful waters where you can rest. Ask Him to take you to green pastures (Psalm 23) and know, beyond any doubt, that you do not need to set up camp where you are. You are going through, and you will get to the other side.

God has promised that He will make a way. You don’t have to know the way. You only need to know Christ. He said Himself that He is the Way. If you follow someone who knows the way, you don’t need a map. How much more then is this true if you are following the Way Himself? Do you know that no obstacle is too big for God to overcome? Israel had to cross the Red Sea, but it was not a problem for God. He made a way through the sea. No one else could see the way. All they saw was a huge and insurmountable obstacle in the way, an enormous sea. God saw a way. All He needed was for one person to trust in Him. Moses was that person. He trusted God and did what God requested. The rest is history. We know that the Israelites crossed the sea on dry ground.

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters - a pathway no one knew was there! [Psalm 77:19]

Editor’s note – The image of a path “no one knew was there” is worth sitting with. Trusting God rarely means seeing the whole road ahead; it means taking the next step and letting Him open the water.

One can only marvel that the Israelites would doubt that the God who led them through the sea on dry ground would be able to grant them victory over the nations that lived in the Promised Land.

If there is any lesson that we can learn from the Israelites, it would be to remain steadfast and to trust in God even when the journey is long and the surroundings are uncongenial.

This is the message that I want you to hear. It may be possible that you have no self-esteem when God calls you. He will not condemn you, but help you to see yourself as He does. He will enable you to do what He has commanded. But, and it is a big but, if you persist in your doubt and refuse to believe God, you are going to miss out on your Promised Land. Neither the world, nor your academic qualifications or other achievements, nor your social status determines who you are, whether good or bad.

You are who God says you are. If, however, you choose not to listen to the voice of God and develop your self-esteem based on the things of the world, you will miss out on the plan and purpose of God for your life. A poor sense of self-worth will cost you a whole lot more than what you may be willing to pay.

Exasperated, I vowed, "They'll never get where they're going, never be able to sit down and rest." [Hebrews 3:18]

If we believe, though, we'll experience that state of resting. But not if we don't have faith. [Hebrews 4:3]

Find out what God says about you and trust Him with your character. He will transform the “grasshopper” into the hero He called you to be. No giant, no army, no obstacle will prevail against you. But you have to trust in God. Understand that tests and trials do not mean that you are separated from God. His path often leads through mighty waters and fiery furnaces. How are you ever going to learn to trust in God if you have no reason or opportunity to do so? How are you ever going to obtain the victory if you have no obstacle to overcome, no foe to conquer, or battle to fight? God promises that He is with you and that He will always cause you to triumph.

But now, God's Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob, the One who got you started, Israel. Don't be afraid, I've redeemed you. I've called your name. You're mine. When you're in over your head, I'll be there with you. When you're in rough waters, you will not go down. When you're between a rock and a hard place, it won't be a dead end - Because I am God, your personal God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That's how much you mean to me! That's how much I love you! I'd sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you. So don't be afraid: I'm with you. [Isaiah 43:1-5]

David said: “In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall” (2 Samuel 22:30). If you trust God with your life and obey Him, you will be able to do the same.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you...The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. [Deuteronomy 31:6, 8]

Moses obeyed God, confronted Pharaoh, and led Israel out of Egypt. Gideon defeated an entire army with only three hundred men. Joshua even commanded the sun to stand still (Joshua 10:12-14)! These men were mere humans just like you. What makes you think that God cannot perform miracles through you?

A Word from the Editor
Self-esteem, as the world defines it, isn’t the cure for what Moses, Gideon, and Saul wrestled with. Their confidence came only after they stepped out in obedience, not before it. If you’re waiting to feel qualified before you trust God with what He’s asked of you, remember that He is the one working in you, giving you both the will and the power to do what pleases Him. He was never waiting on your resume – only your yes.

Editor Comment: You show that God has always called people who felt unqualified, and His patience with Moses, Gideon, and Saul is the same patience He extends to us today. Pairing their stories together builds a clear case that low self-worth has never stopped God's purposes, and readers wrestling with the same doubt will find themselves in good company.

This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.