Goodbye Insecurity!

While Caleb was enjoying his first daycare experience, Hadley and I were enjoying time fellowshipping with other moms and babies in the MOPS group. The speaker, Grace Morrison, did an amazing job on the message she presented. She chose a topic that touched every woman in the room: overcoming insecurity. By the end of her message, almost everyone was saying they knew why God had put them at that meeting - to hear what the Holy Spirit was saying through Grace. Some women were even in tears because they were so touched by how God had spoken to their lives through her. A couple of us asked Grace for her notes afterwards to remember some of the key points. She agreed to post them on Facebook for us, but she went above and beyond, giving us pretty much the whole sermon. I love it so much and think it is applicable to women everywhere. So rather than hoard the beauty of these words on our group's Facebook page, I am sharing them here, hoping that many more women's hearts will be touched and changed for the glory of the One who made us. That rather than being hung up with all we see wrong in ourselves, we will begin to live the lives Christ offers us through His grace and be what God designed us to be.

Grace's message:

OK Mama's!  You asked for it, so here it comes.... :)

Just in case you think for a minute that I am qualified to share on this subject because I have gotten over my insecurities... let me set the record straight:  I have more insecurities than most women have shoes in their closet!  I am in process, just like you - so NO need to feel "insecure" about your leg of the journey...

Like some of you, I was bred for insecurity!  My mom had me out of wedlock in the 70's when that wasn't the "in" thing to do... In fact, she lost my dad, her California Babe, because she chose me over HIS insecurity and his attempt to persuade her to terminate me... Even more ironically, my own grandmother made the same suggestion, to cover HER insecurity and the "shame" it would be on our "dignified" name... HA!  I guarantee she and my Grandpa are glad my Mom had some hudzpah, because I know they love me to pieces!

Who, in this day and age has escaped?  We've all been bred, cultured, formed, molded and intimately instructed in the fine art of insecurity.  You can't show up to kindergarten without suddenly discovering there's a whole universe of things to figure out in order to "fit in," be accepted, get along, etc... then add in factors like broken homes, physical, financial maladies... the list goes on. 

The bottom line is: EVERYONE deals with insecurity! 
And it all started in the beginning...  In Genesis 2:25 we read that Adam and Eve were hanging out in the garden totally naked - WOOT!  (I don't even think they had P90X back then....)  and they were NOT ASHAMED!!! 

Can you imagine that???  Just hangin' out, all exposed to the elements and stuff and not a worry on your mind???  Girls - You'd be lookin' for your Spanx - don't even lie!!! HA!

And what happened?  Eve goes hanging out around the garden pickin' fruit and the Snake starts talking.  I don't know about you, but I think that was her first mistake.  She saw a snake and didn't run!  Then it starts talking and she's like, cool... talking snake, man if it can do that it MUST be smart! lol.  And the Snake asks her the SAME question he's asking today... "Did GOD really say????"  "Come ON! You eat fruit ALL the time... you don't REALLY think it'll kill you do you???  I mean, let's just be logical about this!"  "I think the real problem is, He's afraid you'll be just like HIM!"  I hope you're hearing the Buzzer on that one!  God does NOT require You to be small in order for Him to be Big!!!!!!  He's BIG ALL BY HIMSELF!!!  He created you for Greatness - for Glory!  But more on that in a minute...

So, Eve, not realizing the cardinal rule about staying away from snakes, buys the lie... and her hubs does the same... and BAM!  They had a new found "knowledge."  You see, the tree was called the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil."  Sound familiar???  Before they ate of it, ALL THEY KNEW was the Glory of GOD!  ALL THEY KNEW WAS GOD!!!  They had intimacy - REAL intimacy... and then they discovered shame.  Genesis 3:10 says that God was out one evening to take His daily walk with Adam and couldn't find Him and when he did, Adam said: "I heard you in the garden, but I was naked and afraid and so I hid from you." 

"How did you know you were naked Adam?"  And the truth came out... and the very first sacrifice was made by God to clothe them properly...  You see when they were walking in the garden, they weren't really naked - they were clothed with the glory of God! In Psalms 8:5 David has this amazing revelation of man... and he asks God: "What is man that you are mindful of him???"  Why would you even have us on your mind... he is smacked in the face with the realization of our frailty compared to the All Powerful One... and then he says: "You have made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with GLORY and Honor!"  That word for "crowned" in the Hebrew literally means to circle or surround... to clothe!  They were literally WEARING glory!  They were not "really" naked... they may have had no clothes on and been completely vulnerable to the elements around them, but God had that covered... He had THEM covered... but after the fall, they began to cover themselves... isn't that what we do?  We cover our nakedness... we hide our vulnerabilities behind cloaks that we believe will sheild us from the elements???

Romans 3:23 says: "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory..."  That tree represents the death blow of the law that plunged it's spear between us and His glory... squeezing the demonic wedge into the most intimate place where we would only know HIM.  Now we know how to compare.  Now we regulate... we analyze... good?  evil?  We are painfully aware of our nakedness no matter how thick we pile on the layers and we are left totally exposed to the elements...  But we were never created to live under this law!  We are children of Freedom!  Christ has Redeemed us from the curse of the law!  2 Corinthians 3:16 says: "the law brings death, but the Spirit gives LIFE!"   We are Spirit beings!  Romans 8:14 tells us: "those who are led by the SPIRIT are the children of God!"  God never intended for us to live by a code of ethics... He wants us to live out of our relationship with Him and in the power of His SPIRIT living, moving, breathing IN US!!!  There is NO shame there... NO exposure... We become clothed with Jesus and our outside begins, step by step, to look like the Glory of God that is reigning on the inside!

I love what Proverbs 31:25 says to women - to the women that God calls women of VALOR... "She is CLOTHED (there's that word again) with Strength and Dignity and she LAUGHS at the days to come!"  We know this so well as women, how to clothe ourselves. And some of us are better than others... but, we do it.  We put on the outfit, pair up the shoes and then if we're still not satisfied, we gaud ourselves in jewels until our earlobes are drooping, we need a chiropractor and our arms don't even need sleeves to cover... then we color our face with every cream, paint, powder, liner and sparkle we can find in the house until we think NOW we couldn't POSSIBLY give off the vibe that we couldn't take the world with one hand tied behind our backs... Don't we?  And yet, some of us, makeup or not are like walking advertisements to our own insecurities...  But God wants to take those insecurities and place on us a garment that would make the rarest Versace look like poo by comparison... He wants to clothe you with Strength... You say "weak?"  He says "STRONG!"  You say "shamed, broken, used, wasted?"  He says "look at Dignity walking by... isn't She LOVELY!"  It reminds me of Gideon... Gideon was a WIMP!  He was a whiny, scared little boy... the antithesis of a tough guy and yet, when God called him, He said "Hey, MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR!"  VALOR... sound familiar?  He calls YOU by the same name... 

God's desire is for you to live a life without FEAR!  1Timothy 1:7 says: "God has not given you the spirit of fear, but of Love, Power and a Sound (Well disciplined mind)  The only thing the enemy has on you is a lie and the only power he has is our belief of the lie.  You were not born for instability, depression or anxiety!  You were born for LOVE!  You were born for POWER! (Woman of VALOR) and you were born for STABILITY!

He wants you to live with CONFIDENCE!!!  Not confidence in your ability to "fake it!"  Philippians 3:3 tells us to put NO confidence in the flesh!  Our confidence is in HIM ALONE!!!

He wants you to know you are ENOUGH!!!  (Weaknesses and all...)  2 Corinthians 12:9 says "MY (God's) strength is made PERFECT in weakness..."  Paul went on to say boldly - "Therefore I will BRAG about my weakness that the POWER OF CHRIST may be seen IN ME!"  Seriously???  Wow!  It's the picture of the garden... are we any more unempowered or weak than when we are standing naked???  And yet we are never exposed to the elements when we are clothed in HIS Righteousness!!!

Daughters of the MOST HIGH, it is TIME!!!
*Time to tear down the facades that pit us against one another...
*Time to shred the shadows we hide among that keep us from truth and intimacy...
*Time to know who we ARE in spite of what we see...
*Time to shake off the shackles of insecurity that all too often we've placed on ourselves, because we've been too busy analyzing what' good and what's evil - too soaked up in comparisons to let go and learn how to love and BE loved!

God does NOT love His children Equally... He Loves us UNIQUELY!!!  He loves you differently than He loves me, because we are different and what touches you may not get to me and vice versa... But, He knows exactly where to touch you!  And His love NEVER fails... Never runs away... Never forgets... and NEVER, NEVER Runs OUT!!!  There is MORE THAN ENOUGH!!!

You have been clothed with Strength and Dignity and you are called to LAUGHTER!  Get your LAUGHTER BACK!!!!  You were NOT designed for depression!!!!!  That's why every cell in your body responds negitavely to that emotion - you were made to LAUGH!

Don't forfeit your garments for the Snakes LIE!  All he has is a lie... and he may stike at your heel, but your Kinsman Redeemer - Your SOULS LOVER has CRUSHED HIS HEAD!!!  Genesis 3:15

Don't buy the lie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVVlMQved8k

Thank you, Lord, for this message. And, thank you, Grace, for your obedience to share it.