Can I just say wow. God seriously blows my mind at times and I repented right there and felt convicted because it was the issue all along. People will always speak fears or flattery's but my faith is the most important. So it is with that in mind that I want to challenge each of you the way I have been challenged.
Fears
Paul tells Timothy "For we know that God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but a spirit of LOVE, POWER, and a sound mind. The bible says over 100 times in different says "don't be afraid" or 'fear not." Why? Fear is the anti faith. My biggest problem with fear is it is natural to be afraid, it is completely natural to look at the risks, to worry. How do I know this? Because fear has been a part of my life as well, I work in an environment where I see people die of a cancer, sickness, drugs. Sometimes I have to tell myself that a headache is not a brain tumor, that bruise on my daughter is not leukemia and many other things. So what do you do? How do you fight fear? Jenni Catron in her book "Clout" talks about the two biggest fears people struggle with: The fear of not enough, and the fear of failure. At work the biggest reason a nurse didn't call for help was because they were afraid they were not competent, the results of this always lead to bad things. Fear locks us in and we are afraid to ask for help. You need to be honest with your fears and bring them into the light. She had me do an exercise where I wrote down my fears than told them to my husband. An hour later Nic's response "You are afraid of a lot" He was right and I laughed, but I also felt a weight lifted. Calling out my fears when I am feeling them, writing down in a journal helps me bring to light what scares me in the dark. When you see worst case scenarios as a child and safety wasn't something you knew, you struggle with connection and vulnerability because fear holds you captive and shame keeps you there. Fear is combated by truth in love. Find those who love you and state your fears and then speak truth in love over your fears, also speak God's truths over your fears.
Flattery
Oh I wish I could tell you that I don't want accolades, don't need to be praised but there is a part of me as well as probably a part of you that craves it. Wants to be told that you have value, you are special and you are amazing. This comes from the fear of not enough. If I can be told by someone that I am special, needed, or important it will for a moment make that fear go away. The problem with flattery is once we start chasing it we have to keep feeding it in order to keep the feelings that go along with it. It becomes a hustle and one we spend all our time and energy needing. Not only do we want to be flattered but we want to be flattered by the 'right people.' Most of us want to be needed, want to be wanted, we want to have the special seats in the room, and a place of honor.
All people struggle with this, all people want to be told by the right person that you matter. You belong and you have value, but the truth is God's kingdom doesn't work like the worlds kingdom. Everyone is so concerned with building brands, building your platform that we miss the very ones he sent us to serve. When we are consumed with the hustle of flattery we loose who we were intended to be, not only that but we miss the ones that matter and are important to his kingdom, its not the speakers or the book writers, it is the single mom who is broke, and needs love support and encouragement every week. Its the man who struggles with his self worth, his value and is just trying to keep his head above water. It is the one who you feel is needy, who desperately needs Jesus in their life. Those ones matter. In the book of James he cautions Christ followers to not get caught up with this. Here is James 2:1-4 in the Message version
1-4 My dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, Christ-originated faith. If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, “Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!” and either ignore the street person or say, “Better sit here in the back row,” haven’t you segregated God’s children and proved that you are judges who can’t be trusted?
5-7 Listen, dear friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God. And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn’t it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren’t they the ones who scorn the new name—“Christian”—used in your baptisms?
Faith So I love Hebrews because it gives such a great message on what Faith is. It isn't about us. We get caught up in ourselves and we think our purpose matters the truth is it's not about our purpose it's about His. The whole world is not centered on whether or not we get it right, and we put ourselves in a position that we can't fill let alone stand in. I hear people use purpose like they used the prosperity message in the late 1990's and early 2000's. I am here to tell you if you want great faith, don't get caught up in 'your purpose' your value because that is not the solid foundation of faith. The solid foundation is faith, in Hebrews 11 it says "our ancestors won God's approval by it. It is amazing that we want people's approval but we do not want God's. Not really, we want the fruit of God's approval. Hebrews 11 goes through "The Heroes of Faith" and all of them have something in common. They heard God and then they obeyed him. Our faith is trusting that we don't know, we don't have a plan, and we don't have it figured out, but we trust in the middle of our fear that God is still working things out for us.
So what are you paying the most attention too? Your fears, others flattery, or your Faith?
Comments
Post a Comment