Insecurities

Why update my blog at nearly one o'clock in the morning? For several reasons....

1. My five year old son decided he wanted a midnight snack, an apple....that we have been talking about for 30 minutes now. We have discussed the "beans" (seeds), and how the skin on the apple will make him grow hair on his arms and legs faster. It is funny how he will believe anything I tell him! He immediately asked if I ate the skin on my apples...(because I do not have hair on my legs)...this kid does not miss a beat!!
2. My brain tends to have a "heart-to-heart" with my heart...after midnight! If I don't write what I'm thinking, I'll lose it!!! Who really needs sleep anyways?
3. More than once tonight, this same topic has come up in my household....if we need it, then I kinda figure maybe you guys do too.
4. Oh, and according to my son....the reason it gets dark at night is because there is a man riding a horse that hands God a magic stick and the dust from the magic stick makes the horse dark...making the sky dark. Obviously. I just thought I would throw that in there as a freebie for you, I typed it word for word, right out of his mouth. One last thing he says you HAVE to know, you may not touch the magic stick, because we are giants and it would break! Mickey Mouse, Donald, and Pluto, and the Ninja Turtles can touch it though (talk about life being unfair!!) 

Anyways, back on track....

All I have to share with you tonight is what has been on my heart. I see this in my personal walk with God, and in those around me. It came up in conversation tonight how easy it is to give advice, but how hard it can be to follow it. Here it is:

Insecurity - 

uncertainty or anxiety about oneself; lack of confidence.

OR

the state of being open to danger or threat; lack of protection.

There are two definitions (above), from Webster's Dictionary for the word  insecure or insecurity. I have noticed lately how much I have been attacked (in my mind) in areas where I struggle with insecurity. Satan will gain a foot hold wherever he can! The first definition of the word is what we typically think of when we hear it. Insecurity being a lack of confidence, or even an anxiety about oneself. I knew that before I even typed the word into Google. But the second definition quickly caught my attention, and was nothing I had thought of before.

The second definition is, "lack of protection"

I am grinning ear to ear right now. I'm thinking, "Oh, Lord....I see where this is going!"

Insecurities in our life are areas that we have not allowed God to touch. They start so small, but they fester so quickly!! It is not God's intent for us to feel insecure. Just as the definition says, an insecurity is an area with a lack of protection. 

Spiritually, these insecurities are just that. Areas that are painful to us, we try to mend on our own. We cannot possibly protect ourselves though! We have to have the right equipment to make a full recovery. God is the only one who can touch a tender sore, and make it whole. We can baby it and love it all we want (why are our insecurities often a security blanket??) God wants us to give ourselves to him freely. He will not invade places that he is not wanted. We need to pray daily, holding nothing back. He knows us so intimately. He knows what stresses us out, what gets us down, what hurts and has hurt in the past.  If we do not give these areas to God, they are unprotected territory. The enemy will invade this space and fill it with as much junk as he can. Too often, we take the bait.

Think of a scab. It hasn't hurt in a long time, you actually kind of forgot that it was even there. Then, you break that thick barrier, even with a tiny little prick, it suddenly starts to hurt again. Now that there is light shed on it, reminding you of it's existence, it's easy to pick at it. Then it starts bleeding again,  Without immediate attention, infection will set in and the skin around the area dies.

Insecurities are not much different. They are areas that we often do not even realize are problems. Until, something happens to remind us that it's there. As soon as we realize that it hurts, we don't just leave it alone, we pick at it! We think about it from every viewpoint possible, then we let it control our thoughts and eventually our actions. Do you realize that an insecurity can throw you completely off course?

I said all of this to say:
We should be asking God daily to protect every area of our life, because any place that is not protected will inevitably become invaded.

I feel like God is saying that it is time to clean out the closet. Get rid of what no longer fits. We were made new creatures when we accepted Christ, so not everything that used to fit will fit now. Lay down your old burdens, allow God to be your protector!!  

My prayer for you is that God would show you where the weaknesses are in your spiritual walk. I pray that you would find the road to freedom, that God would bind up these unprotected territories in your life. I am beyond grateful for the insecurities that I have been healed from, and the ones that are falling to the way side as I type this. The Word says that, "by his stripes, we ARE healed"...it doesn't say we "will be healed", or "might be healed", it says we "are healed"!! I pray that you walk fourth in that healing, in Jesus name!