Seeing Jesus puts character and money into proper perspective

In Luke 19 we find a man by the name of Zacchaeus climbing up into a tree so that he could position himself over the crowd to see Jesus. He was a rich tax collector who was short in stature. Have you ever wanted to see something important but could not because someone taller than you got in the way? well naturally you may have tried to position yourself in order to see. This is what Zacchaeus was doing.Instead of seeing the main attraction who was Jesus, he became the main attraction by Jesus.
May I tell you that as you focus on Jesus he will make you feel important and special by focusing back toward you which are very important traits for a persons esteem. Jesus then looks up into the tree and tells Zacchaeus to come down because he would be abiding at his house. Think about it, thousands of people are flocked around Jesus to get a touch or word from him and Zacchaeus gets a personal home visit! how good he must have felt because his esteem was getting a needed boost by Jesus, something his money and position could not do. After all if his money could boost his esteem then why did he go through so much trouble to see Jesus?People usually go after what is valuable and important to them and many times may equate a healthy esteem with the accomplishment. This is true only when a persons priorities are in proper alignment.
A person with a healthy esteem are giving people because they feel as if they have something of value to offer. Zacchaeus tells Jesus that he will will give half of his goods to the poor and that if he had taken anything away from anyone through false accusation, he would restore 4 fold.

Your Money and Self-Esteem

Money and character

Money is neither good or bad but it corresponds with a persons character meaning that the amount of money a person has will only display their character to a greater or lesser degree. If a person has a character problem or a character quality in an area, money will only amplify that character trait, for example a person who loves to give will become a bigger giver with more while a stingy person will become even more stingy with more. The way a person behaves with little or much will reflect the character of that person. If a person is selfish with $4.65 they will continue to be selfish if they hit the lottery. Some people say well when I get more money I will do this or that, but a person must judge their character by what they are doing with what they have right now!
Self-esteem is the thoughts, beliefs and feelings people have about themselves, and how a person feels about themselves will motivate attitudes and certain behaviors.The person may have a lot of money but if they have a low self-esteem the money will only amplify the attitudes and behaviors brought about by the low self-esteem. Many times people with this trait may use their money to boost their ego and as long as they have the money, they have self-esteem, but as their money dwindles so does their esteem. A person with a healthy esteem will remain stable with or without money because they understand that money is a tool to be used and not something to use them. People may also use money in the same identical way as they do food... to help mask pain and make them feel good about emotional issues. No matter how much money a person with low self-esteem makes, its never enough for them, because of a dissatisfaction with themselves.
One cure for low self-esteem is to know that God Loves and believes in you and whether you have a little or a lot it will not change one thing because we all came into this world without nothing and we will leave without nothing. You may have experienced or known someone who has acquired friends along with the hypocritical display of that friendship brought with money, but as soon as the money ran out ,the friends followed, because the interest was not in the friendship, but the money.
Also a person with money may find it hard to know who their real friends are and so remain alone and isolated because of the fear of rejection if the money some how disappears. The prodigal son in Luke 15 ran into a similar problem when he left his fathers house with his inheritance; he spent all that he had on riotous living, but when everything was gone he ended up in the hog pen alone.The hog pens of life are where people who don't feel good about themselves end up. They end up in embarrassing places and try to make themselves at home there because of how they feel about themselves. Low self -esteem will even convince a person that they deserve to be where their mistakes have landed them. But the one cure as I said earlier is to know that God loves and believes in you. The father was waiting on the prodigal son all along to come back home and into his rightful place.
The young man says I will arise and go to my fathers house lest I perish with hunger. A good lesson to learn here is don't use money to do "what only God can", and that's welcome you back into your rightful place and inheritance where he restores a robe on your shoulder, a ring on your finger and shoes on your feet which is everything the father did because of his love. You and I are royalty and we don't need money to make us into who we already are.