Title When You Feel Inferiority
Contents
title ; when you feel inferior
main text ; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
Have you ever felt a sense of inferiority, thinking that you are inferior to others? In my case, when I was in middle school, I couldn't study, so I felt very inferior to my studies.
In particular, since I have a strong sense of inferiority to mathematics, I naturally hate math teachers, and whenever it is time for math class, I have to go to the infirmary or leave with excuses to avoid that time.
And when I was in high school, there were many times when I felt physically inferior because I was a teenager. In particular, as a man, I had to have thick forearms like Popeye, but at that time I thought I had thin forearms, so I really hated showing my arms to others.
Still, it was okay in winter because I wore school uniforms that could cover my arms, but in the summer when I wore short-sleeved school uniforms that showed off my arms, I was very concerned.
Especially when there are many male and female students on a bus, I remember falling off the bus while deliberately not holding the handle on top of the bus for fear that someone would look at my slender arms.
When I was in college, even though my family wasn't very poor, I fell into a useless sense of inferiority that "my house is poor" and I hate bringing my friends home, especially when I'm making a girlfriend, if I get close enough to bring her home, I intentionally end the relationship. There were times when I cut it off.
Of course, it may be because I didn't really love, but for me at the time, the wounds on my pride that came from a sense of inferiority were very sensitive.
In this regard, we see this of my daughter Joo-hee Kim. A while ago, Joo-hee is returning home from school, and she hears the voices of Joo-hee and her friends near the fence at the back of the house.
My family thinks, "Aha, it looks like he's bringing him home after school to play with his friends!" I thought, but my daughter didn't come with her friends, but came in alone, with a sagging, unhappy look, and a little angry.
My housemate said, "Why are you coming in alone? Your friends have come all the way here, but they don't come with you?" ', my daughter's answer was, "My family is poor!"
But while Joo-hee Kim agreed, it didn't feel so good or bright.
Seeing that Joo-hee Kim also felt the same sense of inferiority I felt before, I thought, "I need to provide some things before Joo-hee Kim falls into a deeper sense of inferiority about poverty."
So I bought a bed base for Joo-hee Kim, and decorated her children's room just like that. Maybe that's why, now he sleeps well in his room, and he also shows his room when his friends come, thinking he has something.
Of course, while buying a bed base for my daughter's room, I said, "Some of our members still don't have a bed base for their child!" I think about it and I am very sorry.
And this is how I bought my daughter's bed base, and my husband and I also bought the bed mattress used by my wife and I for 140 dollars from the tares sale.
"No, what are you doing these days? Are you not trying to be a good father or a good husband before you go to heaven? It's okay if you don't buy me something like that, so I can't go to heaven now? How can I live alone... !" So my husband and I laughed out loud.
After all, as we grow up, we can feel a number of feelings of inferiority. In preparation for today's sermon on the feeling of inferiority, I looked at the case of inferiority counseling that appeared on the Internet.
Among them, I would like to introduce a case of counseling about a high school student's sense of inferiority.
"I have a cousin, but to me, who is the only son, he's like a real older brother.. He's very good at studies... To some extent, he can come in elementary school and he's all right. I have two cows. Adults are all dogs.. So I studied hard and barely saved my face.. I was in middle school and played for a while, so my grades dropped.. So I barely made it to the humanities high school.. But he went to science high school.. So the adults around me are only half like your brother. Ragu hagu dog, what should I do?"
Here is the counselor's response to this:
"Adults are like that. They want their children to study better and that's what parents want. They think, 'If you just compare like that, your son will work harder so that he doesn't fall for it..' ; Everyone is different. Some people are good at studying, some people are good at singing, some people are kind... It would be wrong behavior of adults to put those things on the basis of study and make people feel sorry for them ^^ ; And it's not that bad grades. What.. Don't feel inferior to that.. Buy confidently ^-^"
And in addition to these replies, there were also other people who read this article and responded like this. "My sister entered Seoul National University, but I don't feel inferior. Be brazen like me."
And another confession of inferiority.
"I am 17 years old. Compared to others, I have an ugly face. I don't have pretty hands. (There are many wrinkles) I have a lot more hair than the norm... (leg hair, arm hair, and even my fingers... hahaha!) ??.??I'm going crazy. Why am I such an ugly duckling.. No, I'm a hateful person XX? Especially since there is a child in the same school with a thin, elementary voice that hasn't gone through a metamorphosis even though he's 17. I envy him. There are kids who have , and I have something like this.. Besides, he looks very young and innocent.. Jealousy + inferiority goes crazy. I'm not very good at studies.. His voice is weird..(Like that kid) How nice it would be to be cute!) He also looked really ugly.. (He looks so cute..) The song is -_- He has a voice like this, how can he sing well.. Dancing... -_- It's physical. Exercise? Physical education Score 300, etc.. Oh, why were you born, why were you born..!!!" Through these writings, we can get a glimpse of what our youth are struggling with because of their inferiority complex.
Everyone, if you are caught up in a feeling of inferiority, you will lose your confidence in everything, you will become a passive person, and you will become an incompetent and helpless person. And it is easy for a person who feels inferior to the path of loneliness on their own.
Also, such a person is easily offended by things that do not feel disappointing, and is good at slurping. And if you fall into a feeling of inferiority, it's easy to become a loser in life because you don't have the confidence to do everything.
Furthermore, a person with a strong sense of inferiority can become a tragic person who gives up and even commits suicide.
Gentlemen, there are very few people who do not have a sense of inferiority. However, for us believers, even this feeling of inferiority can be used as a good opportunity to receive God's great grace and blessings if we use it well and use it for good.
Take the case of the apostle Paul. He had a very strong sense of inferiority. There was none other than a stinging thorn, a disease commonly called eye disease. He healed other people's diseases and raised the dead, but how embarrassed must he have been because he always had mucus in his eyes due to his eye problems?
So he was troubled by the thorn of this disease, and with a sense of inferiority, he prayed earnestly to God to heal it. Then the Lord answered, "Your grace is sufficient, for your strength is made perfect in weakness."
As you all know, the Apostle Paul was a man who received great favor from God. He went up to the third heaven of heaven, went to paradise, and heard unspeakable words.
And he healed many diseases, raised the dead, and wrote half of the New Testament. Therefore, God gave Paul a stinging thorn, that is, an element of inferiority, in order to keep him from being arrogant and self-indulgent.
Here, Paul realized a mysterious truth. He had a sense of inferiority because of the thorn in the flesh, but because of that, he was not proud, but received the grace of humility and depended on God, so that God's power rested on him.
"Therefore, I will rather rejoice and boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore, for Christ's sake, I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, needs, persecutions, and hardships, for when I am weak, then I am strong. "(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Everyone, if you take advantage of your inferiority complex through faith, you will receive the grace of humility and the power of God. Look at the great leader Moses.
When he grew up as the son of a princess, learned all the sciences of Egypt, and fell into a sense of superiority, he became so proud that God could not use him. On the contrary, he became so humble that he felt inferior while tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro in the wilderness for 40 years. By showing Moses many wonders and miracles, didn't he give him courage and use him as the leader of Israel?
The prophet Jeremiah was also a man possessed by a profound sense of inferiority when he was called by God. So he confesses to God like this.
"I am sorry, Lord GOD, I do not know how to say I am a child" (Jeremiah l:6).
Ladies and gentlemen, you can see that God uses and greatly blesses those who have such a sense of inferiority and deeply realize their weaknesses, incompetence, and shortcomings.
In today's text, it is said that among those who were saved, "not many wise, not many powerful, and not many well-known people."
He said, "God chooses the lowly, despised, and nonexistent things in the world to abolish the things that are." And the reason for this was "so that no flesh might boast before God."
Ladies and gentlemen, if you make good use of your inferiority complex, you will receive the grace of humility that God is most pleased with, and you will be able to rely on God instead of yourself, so you can let God's power stay in you.
And because of their inferiority complex, they can work harder than others to achieve success, and realize their weakness, incompetence, and lowliness, and pray hard to God.
Therefore, when you and I in this foreign land feel inferior, I pray that you will use it as an opportunity to draw closer to God and to receive miracles and grace from God.