“His power is made perfect in my weakness, all the more I will boast…” - Paul the Apostle
Living a victorious Christian life may take us facing our weaknesses by coming head to head with them – believing that they don’t deter us from whatever God has purposed for our lives. Whatever God has purposed and willed for your life, you can be assured He can accomplish those things through you - the ones he created and knows.
Don’t you know he created you? He knows what you’re capable of and what you’re not. David writes these unforgettable words in this Psalm…
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” - Psalm 139: 13-16
It is so easy for anyone of us to judge ourselves for what we are not doing! We have to be determined to fight against accepting the world’s standards as truth – only God’s truth keeps us free!
Sometimes I’ve wondered why God didn’t give me certain abilities and strengths. I can drift into thinking “If only I was that way, I could have done so much more with my life”. I catch myself feeling inadequate more than I’d like to admit. But honestly admitting my fight with those feelings should act to encourage you – I write from a place of learning day by day to actually put into practice the truth of God’s Word.
Living victoriously in Christ takes constant surrender and courage to stand in the light of what God created you to be. Not in light of what the world says you should be in order to be valuable.
One of the most important things you could do when you feel inadequate is to replace the destructive verbiage over yourself with God’s Word about you. One of my favorite verses in scripture is “the word of God is living and active…”, meaning there is something actually happening when we read it or speak it out loud.
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” -Hebrews 4:12
Replacing any feelings of inadequacy with faith in God’s power in you and his capability of working through you no matter what you believe about yourself, is the only way to live without either misery or self-reliance. We can so easily say “God I can’t” or “I can figure this out on my own” and both be a source of unwillingness to hand over our lives to God.
How God must feel grieved over our lack of faith!
I understand completely living under the anguish of feeling for years like I just wasn’t “good enough”. Letting judgmental or insensitive comments define my confidence and joy. It took total surrender and willingness to face the disappointment and pain of some judgment I felt in my younger years and mostly to forgive the ones I felt it from. I had to forgive the person(s) who hurt my sense of value and surrender that pain to Jesus once and for all. I also had to set some healthy boundaries for my life to protect my emotions and my spirit. I had to stop giving emotional permission to people to determine my worth or value. I finally realized that the only place the foundation for my value could come from was being a beloved child of God. What a work of God to set my heart free, and now it's a daily act of surrender to remain free.
You can be spiritually set free from an area of bondage over your emotions and mind, but the enemy will attempt to drag you back down into a place of defeat. He wants nothing more than to see you live a miserable existence. If Satan can't have your soul, he will work to make you miserable so that you don't live The Abundant Life and remain ineffective for the Kingdom.
The Word of God is your greatest defense to speak over yourself when those inadequate feeling start to creep in. Even when you don't "feel" it, if your foundation is your relationship with Christ, then you choose to believe his Word rather than your feelings.
In the hope that you become spiritually and emotionally free to be who God made you to be, I encourage you to think about some things for a moment. Below are some questions I hope you can process and pray for God to reveal where you are in these areas.
· Do you believe you are made the way you are for God’s glory and purposes?
· Have you been seeking to find personal value or worth in anything or anyone other than God?
· Is there anyone you need to forgive for making you feel less than? Can you pray for them?
· Do you need to set healthy boundaries with people who may have a critical approach to you?
· How can you make sure to dwell on who God says you are in him?
The Word of God has the power to change a stubborn mind, capture a rebellious heart and tear down all the notions of inadequacy! Let your identity rest on who God says you are once and for all to experience the freedom that will follow being in your rightful place in Him.
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