Mission #1 - Dealing With Ourselves

Having hope will give you courage. You will be protected and will rest in safety. Job 11:18

If we stand back and take a look, it will become obvious, if it isn’t already, that the majority of the church struggles with insecurity. I started making that observation about the time the Lord started calling me to make some bold moves to outgrow my own. When I realized it wasn’t just my problem, but a widely spread one, I knew this mission I was being called to is about becoming a warrior and inspiring others to as well. Without addressing those insecurities, we will never come to our “promised land’.  And we won’t win any battles with the enemy because He will always play on our insecurities.

 

Confidence in who God made us to be, and His reliability to catch us is more than the simple "believe in yourself" inspirational quote leads us to think. True security not based on us or our abilities, but on the God we serve and His view of and love for us.

The problem is, many Christians confuse security with arrogance. Or they simply do not see a value for it. But the truth it, our spiritual side works with our physical and emotional. If one part of us isn’t healthy, it will impact the whole. It will affect our ability to see, hear, sense and speak. God created the whole being, not just the spiritual, and He appeals to all aspects of us as He speaks into us and reveals truth by uncovering lies or ignorance. You see, His concept of health and the world's are two different things, so we need Him to keep us on His path. 

When we react or make decisions in fear…when we hide or cower…when we pretend…when we are dishonest…when we don’t believe we have a purpose or gift..when we make excuses, we are insecure. When we cannot manage to love other people, we are insecure. When we feel numb or crippled by the lies that we cannot move forward, we are insecure. When we enable bad behavior or defend our own we are insecure. And let's not leave out the insecurity revealed when we have unrealistic expectations on ourselves or anyone else. 

The only way out is to be in relationship with God and let Him teach us how He sees us. That's where the way we see ourselves is changed. Without God the Father, Jesus and His Holy Spirit, we'll never have a healthy view of ourselves. We can’t speak it into others until we accept it for ourselves. And we sure can’t impact a world we are too afraid to live in.

 

We were meant to stand strong, as believers of God, but standing on our own isn't strong. There is nothing attractive about insecurity. It ruins relationships and pushes people away. And the world will not want what we have if we, ourselves, aren’t confident. 

It doesn't happen overnight; it's a process. Confidence, or "Godfidence" is composed of both transparency and humility. That might sound contradictory to what you're try to obtain, but, in fact, is key. We have to be willing to let our walls down and truly see ourselves, limitations, strengths and all. We can’t change until we do. We won't lean on God consistently without both. We need Him to expose our insecurities and heal us from them continually. It’s when we think we can do all this stuff on our own that we become arrogant and prideful. Both of those are simply masked insecurity.

 

For me, this journey He put me on for emotional health has changed the way I interact with Him. It has also give me healthier relationships overall. It has lowered my defenses, enabling me to truly hear what I need to hear. It has also given me a keener ear into the needs of others. On the same hand, it has cost me a lot...a lot of uncomfortable moments of standing up, speaking up and disturbing the unhealthy facade of peace. 

 

God will use even one emotionally healthy person to help others. He will use them to call others into accountability in a loving way that motivates but does not cripple. Security is the call to freedom from lies and unhealthy entanglements. Freedom is where we live fully as who we were created to be- blessing our God the most. 

 

Come

All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the fountain
Dip your heart in the stream of life
Let the pain and the sorrow
Be washed away
In the waves of his mercy
As deep cries out to deep

--From the song "All Who Are Thirsty"

 

Some of you  have been told that you’ve got to get it together to come to Jesus. Maybe you’ve always thought He doesn’t want you because you aren’t “churchy”.  You think you’ve got to fit in with the church goers you know, but you don’t. Perhaps you carry a burden that you thinks makes you too messy for Him. Or maybe you believe it’s too late for you, that you’re too far gone and stuck in your ways. But none of that is true. You, just as you are, are what Jesus wants. Your aches and pains, loads and messiness do not take Him by surprise. Without the mess, none of us ever learn to depend on Him and trust Him. And we will never know what healing is like if we’re “perfect”! He didn’t come for the perfect, but the messy.

 

He didn’t come to make the morally upright more right. He didn’t come to help us follow the rules. He didn’t come to beat  you over the head with the threat of punishment, but to offer you another way – a better way! He came to offer you security, permanent and true. He came to offer you forgiveness from all the stuff you’ve done and grace for what you will do still. He will deliver and bring you right into your true purpose. He wants a relationship with you that Is free from barriers caused by a hard heart, shame, bitterness, judgment, self hate or the hate of others. He will set you free from them all as you journey with Him.

 

He won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, granted obedience it a choice and love always offers one. But you’ll find that His way always ends better than yours. He won’t make you act, look, dress and think like your fellow believers. We’re all created to express an aspect of His vast creativity and we are never more unique than when we follow, listen to and interact with Him. Whatever you inherited from your Father will come out in relationship.

 

Jesus never expected perfection from us. He came because, without Him,  we cannot experience freedom in order to truly live out our time here with purpose. He came because He loves us too much to see us live in shame and condemnation and with hard hearts that separate us from truly hearing from and interacting with our Father. He doesn’t care if you go to church; it isn’t a qualifier to get His love. He doesn’t care if you know scripture, but He will teach you. He really doesn’t care what you’ve done wrong because His forgiveness, when you ask for it, is unlimited. His hands are held out, arms full of love for you. He welcomes you- just as you are, right now and every day after. You’ll never know your purpose better than what He shows you through relationship. Be courageous and take His hand!

The Sacrifice

The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart. Psalm 51:17

 

The Lord is looking for us to step fully into the water, not to merely dip our toes. He is looking for us to bring our blind, hardened and aching hearts, lay them on before Him and allow Him to tenderize us. There is no “half in”. Either we’re in or not. Either we trust Him with our hearts or we don’t. And part of doing so means we trust Him to re-teach us whatever it is that is in us that doesn't agree with Him. Without a tender heart, we will not have the discernment to know what that is. We can't be like Jesus at all with hearts of stone. 

 

Under the Old Testament covenant, everyone in the tribes of Israel was required to offer sacrifices at the temple under very strict rules. Every sin of every person was to be atoned for by the offering of their most perfect livestock. They couldn’t keep it for themselves; they had to offer it as a means of fulfilling their end of the covenant and to prove they trusted God to provide more. However, under the new covenant the blood of Jesus atones for all of us-once!  We are no longer required to offer up livestock to atone for our sins. But we still have a part in this- we are called to offer up the sacrifice of our whole hearts. This takes a whole lot more courage and faith. Laying down our walls is no easy task!

 

To follow Jesus is an invitation that comes with the calling to offer up your whole heart to Him. You expose it to what He wants, you keep it tender to hear His voice and you allow Him to break your heart for what breaks His. It means we accept a life of pain and hurt and allow it to shape us into being more useful to others who share similar experiences. Without pain, we can never relate to the lost and broken. Without ever having been broken ourselves, how can we assure others that He still heals? 

 

Let's be honest, we’re all human and have a tendency in all to clench up. We harden our hearts out of fear and a habit of guarding ourselves. But God can be trusted with our hearts. He can be trusted to do right by us. Sure, having a tender heart is going to mean pain. But that pain makes us more like Him, more compassionate, merciful, forgiving, and others-centered. When life is easy, the human heart has a habit of becoming entitled, judgmental, self-centered and merciless. We get comfortable and lazy. We become all about making our lives even more comfortable, not able helping others. It ain't pretty! But when we allow our hearts to be broken by what breaks His, we honor our part of the covenant- offering our hearts as an unwavering sacrifice to fulfill His desires. 

We cannot “follow the rules”, yet keep our hearts from His touch and expect to be made righteous. For it takes more courage and faith to give your heart to someone you cannot see than it does to live morally right. I’m not saying that living morally right is bad; I am saying that it’s not enough to please God. It takes a relationship built on trust to lay your heart bare and let The Great Heart Doctor do whatever He wants with it. Allowing God to hold your bare heart and have free reign with it opens you up to a wide range of experiences with Him, teaching you more about who He really is and who he is calling you to be. 

 

When we live with the mission of protecting ourselves, we wall up and miss out on chances to connect with God and people. I believe people who do this are more miserable than those who are tender. There is so much to gain from life that you can only get by having a tender heart. At least that's been my experience. You see, He doesn’t just call us to lay our bare hearts out there unprotected. He protects us. If we trust Him by staying tender, we get greater protection from Him than we could ever provide ourselves.

 

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, 

And His ears are open to their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,

To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,

And delivers them out of their troubles.

The Lord is near those who have a broken heart, 

And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, 

But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He guards all his bones; 

Not one of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked, 

And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, 

And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

Psalm 34: 15-22