Proverbs 29:25
“Something has a hold of me, like someone grabbed me from behind and refuses to let me go. I try and I try but I can’t seem to break free from the grasp of this invisible force. Sometimes it’s even hard to breathe. As I feel my breath waning from the force of constriction, I sense the weight of it all against my chest as I am caught in its clutches and I wonder……………What is this?”
Waaaaaaait, wait, wait, wait…….hold on a minute…..reality check…….did I really mean to say all of that? What if someone sees me buckle and all of a sudden I’m out in the open? What then? My cover will be blown. I’m not even sure I want to face this, much less let anyone else see it.
OK….get a hold of yourself. “Sister All Together” is headed right for me and I can’t let her see me like this. Deep breath, relaaax. Do I have all my loose ends tucked in? Shoulders back, head up, smile. I must be as convincing as my…………“perception”……….. of her.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Too many times we think the stuff that we try to hide from others is the unseen force that holds us back but nothing could be farther from the truth. The real life “clutcher” we deal with is one of our own choosing and we have become so accustomed to dragging it around with us everywhere we go, nursing it and protecting it, that we don’t realize that it is has become a parasitic leech. It’s not hidden........we just convince ourselves that it is. All the while, we drag it into the arena of our life for public consumption where we will be eaten alive.
A parasitic leech is something that depends on something else for existence or support without making a useful or adequate return, seeking its own advantage or gain. I’m talking about the fear of man. Not just fear of what others can do to us or what we perceive them to think of us, but even more, the fear of ourselves and our unwillingness to embrace our frail humanity. We carry this fear around like a monkey on our back and we feel it every time we buckle under the weight it. We cloak it in pretense and, BINGO…….we land ourselves in full fledged insecurity and pride, unable to receive the mercies of God because we aren’t willing to be real about our weaknesses.
Second Corinthians 12:9-10 says that God’s power works BEST in weaknesses and that we should therefore GLADLY boast in them SO THAT the power of Christ can work through us, for when we are weak, then are we strong. Our weaknesses serve as a platform for Jesus to operate from and when we hide them away, we hide Him away. Our sphere of influence is depending on us as Christians to stop being phony. We will all be at a greater advantage when we choose to arrest the fear of man, embrace ourselves, and allow Jesus to be seen. The world has no problem understanding man’s ability to be accomplished in his strengths but it will certainly take notice when it sees us as Christians being accomplished in our weaknesses. Little do they realize that in that moment, they have just had an encounter with Jesus, and He speaks through our yielded lives ever so gently to the hearts of those who will witness it.
So my encouragement to you today is don’t be afraid of who you are. Be the woman God has created you to be. Ask Him to help you understand His love for you and as you do, trusting Him will lead the way to yielding yourself to Him in the areas of your life that feel vulnerable, as those are the areas where He will work best. And in the process of it all, your understanding of who you are will increase in Him.
TC
