Having worked with thousands of people I did not realize how many were fearful of making mistakes. I guess it was because God did not make us perfect, I expected to make mistakes and God would help me correct them. Making a mistake wasn’t pleasant but it wasn’t the end of the world. I guess it was my belief that I could do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

What about Christians who are so afraid of making a mistake they are not willing to take any chances? Can God really use them and count on them to do His will? I heard a minister say that no matter where we as believers go, God will find us and He is with us at all times.

God does not expect us to be perfect. If we read our Bible we will know that. One of the things I have observed over the years, many Christians ignore that they have the Holy Spirit within them. Read what happened at Pentecost when the 120 received the Holy Spirit and how He changed everyone’s life. Prior to that the Apostles were afraid and then they became extremely bold in spreading the gospel.

In Philippians 3:12 – 16 – “ Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.”

All that Paul had done he still had not reached perfection. If he hadn’t reached perfection what does that say about us? Living a holy and righteous life is a process. We will never reach perfection until we enter Heaven. Paul encourages believers to press forward toward what lies ahead and forget about the past. This means we are to look forward to what is ahead and not to worry about the past. If you have a perfectionist personally that seems almost impossible to do. That would be something we would need to pray about daily. We need to ask God to help us remember we are not perfect people and that is why Christ came as our Savior. If we were perfect, we would not need Christ to die for our sins.

God does not want us to make mistakes but He knows everyone will. Therefore, we must learn to lean on the Holy Spirit to check and guide us. When we pray, ask God to help us overcome the feeling of living a life paralyzed by fear and imperfections so that we can fulfill His purpose for our lives and guide us toward the plan that God have made for each of us.

We must continually remind ourselves Satan works on us to keep us down. Thinking negative thoughts will keeps us from being a blessing to others. There are times when the Holy Spirit will encourage us in helping others and we will refuse because we do not want to make a mistake and say or do the wrong thing. Not all thoughts come from God and we must realize that demonic influences often keep us from doing what God wants.

To overcome a low self-esteem we are told to focus on others and in helping others, it will improve how we feel about ourselves.