Free Of Me: Why Life Is Better When It’s Not All About YouSýnishorn

Leaving Behind the Self-Help God

If you’re feeling lonely, overlooked, or insecure, you might be tempted to worship the self-help god that many books and speakers espouse. This god exists to make you feel better about yourself. This god can make you feel special. This approach to God is a reflection of how the church has adopted the language of our culture.

What is interesting about the Christian self-help approach is that it’s markedly different from God’s. Consider the story of Moses, when God called him to speak to Pharaoh. Moses felt inhibited by his weaknesses. He didn’t feel capable of speaking to Pharaoh or of leading the Israelites out of Egypt, because he only saw his disqualifications. And how did God respond to Moses’s doubt? He didn’t give a self-help pep talk. He didn’t affirm Moses’s leadership or his talents or gifts. He didn’t hug him and cheer for him and speak encouraging words over him.

God didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he changed the subject. God affirmed his own strength, his own leadership, his own self, because the outcome never hinged upon Moses. This story was not about Moses’s strengths. Moses was never meant to be the hero. Only God could deliver the Israelites out of Egypt, so he directed Moses’s focus back to him. 

God responded similarly when he appointed Jeremiah, a prophet who was concerned about his youth. “I do not know how to speak; I am too young,” he worried (Jer. 1:6), but God didn’t coddle or dote on him. Rather than assure Jeremiah he was talented for his age, that he had great leadership skills and a terrific personality, God simply affirmed his own self: “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you” (1:8). Once again, God directed his servant of his own limitations and onto the limitless God. 

God cares about our insecurities, but the difference between a self-help god and the true, living God is focus. The one true God responds to our insecurities with reassurances about himself. In doing so, he releases us from the source of our paralysis, shifting our gaze from the “can’ts” to the One who can. 

Consider a difficult situation in your life right now. What would it look like to consider that overcoming that situation has everything to do with God’s strength and nothing to do with your own?