Got Insecurity?

Jeremiah 17:7 But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence

As I journaled this morning about insecurities I was dealing with and just asking God to show me the root of my insecurities and how to deal with them I was led to this scripture and boy was it convicting. First let me talk about my insecurities.

insecure– (adj) lacking trust or confidence in ourselves or someone else

That definition alone exposes my insecurities in a lot of areas. I think man if insecurity simply means lacking trust then oh boy am I insecure. My insecurities are brought out in many different areas of my life but mainly my job and my relationship.

On my job Satan constantly plants thoughts in my mind about me not being successful or even just thoughts about what people think of me. Satan knows I’m insecure in this area so he plays on my weakness. He knows that being successful means a lot to me. I’ve always been successful. I’ve never NOT exceeded the expectation. I feel like it’s just what I do. But when things are not going right on my job and I feel that reputation of being successful is threatened I can really begin to doubt not only myself but God. Satan also plays on my constant thoughts about being a minority. Both being Black and being a female. Often times I can walk into a room and look around and just feel like it’s clear that I do not belong here and everyone sees that. Satan knows I have these thoughts so he plays on them by trying to attribute the things that do not go well to those facts.

But I’ve learned that the key to insecurity is fighting those irrational thoughts with what I know to be true. So I’ll do that for this situation as well.

The truth is that God placed me at this job. Black, White, Asian, male or female God placed me here. I know he did because the job literally fell into my lap and my steps have been ordered from day one. Everything that I could ask for in making this transition to the corporate world and away from home has been given to me without me having to fight for anything. God literally laid out the path for me and all I had to do was walk. With that in mind then I know God also has a plan for me. If God went so far as to do all that and because the scriptures tell me that he has a plan for my life then it’d be crazy of me to think that it’s all in vain. As far as the success goes the Bible tells me not to place my treasures here on Earth (Matthew 6:19-21) because wherever my treasure lies is where my heart is also. Well if I’m really a spiritual being in an Earthly body and I truly believe that heaven is the ultimate goal then how much does that truly matter? Furthermore the Bible also tells me that God will withhold no good thing from me (Psalm 84:11). Literally God says if its something that is good for you then why wouldn’t I give it to you? Well shoot problem solved! If he doesn’t give it to me then it is not good for me. Crazy how simple God can lay things out for us right?

So what’s my point in saying all of this? This by far isn’t the only area that I struggle with insecurity but it is one that Satan keeps taking blows at me through. Day after day after day and day. So I’ve had to learn how to fight back and that’s what I want you to know as well. When situations arise in which I see my insecurity poking its head instead of trying to cover it up and make it seem as if I’m ok I have to expose them so that Satan can no longer use them against me. That’s how you fight back when Satan plants irrational thoughts that you know can’t be from God. Darkness can’t dwell in light. That’s simple science right? If it’s day then it’s not night and vice versa. Well when you expose those irrational thoughts and stop trying to make it seem like you have it under control that’s you shining a light on Satan’s tactics and well because Satan cannot stand the light then he (being darkness) must flee. So as God continues to expose the areas of my heart where I lack trust in him I’m constantly putting those things before God so that he can renew my mind and help me to see the reality of these situations with my spiritual eyes.

I want to leave you with some practicals for those days that you lack trust and confidence that things (in whatever area of your life) will work out:

• Write down the thoughts you are having or say them out loud. This will help you hear/see how ridiculous you sound.

• Share them with someone. That person who isn’t directly involved can help you see more clearly what God may be exposing in your heart and how Satan may be at work.

• Find scriptures to combat those thoughts. So if you’re feeling unloved you may look up Psalm 139:17 that says that the thoughts God has towards you can’t be numbered and that he thinks of you constantly. Well clearly he loves you. For me if I’m feeling like I’m never going to succeed I look up Jeremiah 29:11 that reminds me that God knows the plans he has for me and they are plans to prosper me. If you’re feeling bad about mistakes you’ve made you might go to Titus 2:11 and be reminded that Jesus gave his life to not only free us of sin but also to cleanse us.

• Renew your mind constantly. This one is huge. You can’t just study this thing out one time and think you’ve got it. You have to constantly renew your mind in this area. You may have to revisit the same scriptures multiple times, but that’s ok. That’ll give the scriptures time to really take root and change your heart.

So amen! We all face insecurities of some kind. Though your struggle may not be my struggle and you may have one area down that I’m still working on at the end of the day we all have that something that we have to go after. And that’s ok! This life is about constantly growing so the true joy in these experiences is that God is giving you the chance to not only get to know him better through these situations, but also giving you the chance to be more like him in character. How amazing is that?! Until next time…

Yours in love,

Shell