The Nature of True Faith

From a blog by Les Miles, RUF Campus Minister at Ole Miss:

"the problem with every misconception of faith is that it still ends up being about ME, and not Jesus"

Read what he means, I think he is right on track.

Being captured by Jesus is the essence of faith: He is the giver of faith, the object of faith, the obsession of faith. Seeing ourselves (in our hopelessness) and seeing Him (in His beauty, love, sacrifice, righteousness) is what produces faith. Why do some see and others don't? Those who see have their blinders taken off by the Holy Spirit (2Cor 4:6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.).

What is more seeing ourselves should move us to look to Jesus. Seeing Jesus should move us to have such confidence of being loved that we forget about our selves, which would propel us to radically serve the Lord and others.
This is why Jesus died:
2Corinthians 5:15 "He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf."

Along these lines, the whole idea of self-esteem is ludicrous. When I consider myself and think highly of myself, it does 1 of 2 things: 1) makes me a hypocrite because I have feed myself lies to believe my goodness, when living with myself is a more powerful apologetic to the contrary, or 2) makes me the biggest jerk in the world (pride). Both are rooted in looking to me for hope (which leads to deepening despair and a warped humility that moves me to always try to be somebody). But looking to Jesus leads me to an overwhelming confidence that I am loved (contrary to what I know I deserve) and makes me less self-conscious (true humility).