What we believe about ourselves needs to match reality

Proverbs 14:12 (NLT)
12 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

King Solomon gives us an account of those who have become deluded in their judgment of themselves. The way they are conducting their life seems fair or reasonable to them. They feel their opinions and practices are good from what they know. Matthew Henry said, “The way of ignorance and carelessness, the way of worldliness and earthly-mindedness, the way of sensuality and flesh-pleasing, seem right to those that walk in them, much more the way of hypocrisy in religion, external performances, partial reformations, and blind zeal; this they imagine will bring them to heaven; they flatter themselves in their own eyes that all will be well at last.” The problem becomes those who deceive themselves also destroy themselves.

“Florence Foster Jenkins, a soprano, loved to sing—especially the great operatic classics. She inherited money when she was in her 50s, which funded her musical career. It wasn't long before her popularity skyrocketed, holding annual recitals at the Ritz-Carlton in New York throughout the 1930s and 40s. But as one writer puts it, ‘History agrees, with hands held over its ears, that she couldn't sing for sour apples. Jenkins' nickname, behind her back, was 'the Tone-Deaf Diva,' or 'The Terror of the High C's.' The writer adds that if you ever hear one of her old recordings, all that you'll hear will be ‘squeaks, squawks, and barks.’ But get this: she didn't ever grasp that she was bad! When people laughed and hooted as she sang, she took it to be delirious enthusiasm for great music. She thought they loved her and her music.
["Florence Foster Jenkins: She played Carnegie Hall and she really couldn't sing a note?" Chicago Tribune (11-20-09)]

People may think it doesn’t matter what you believe about yourself as long as it seems right to you. But the truth is what you believe needs to match up with the reality of life. You can believe you don’t have issues or problems, but reality better prove it out or you may be quickly heading for defeat.