Most everyone wants to be inspiring! Just look at Facebook. People want others to see them as an important part of society. Everyone wants to feel like they are making a difference in life, either by what they do for work, for their family, for their church, for success. Everyone has a passion and they want to be accepted for that passion! They want to share it with others!
But here is what I learned...
You will find in this life, that much of the time, when your sight is on the respect or popularity of others, you are going to start to live a life that was not intended for you. You are going to find that the more acceptable you are to others, the more you crave their fellowship and attention.
You will find that the more you read self help books, you will give your self just one more standard that you can't live up to. You will notice that you will start to see yourself in how others perceive your life should look like. You will determine that you either have to live a life that reflects their box, or you will shut down and find yourself depressed at your inability to perform to those standards.
You will find that you can even get hurt by Christian friends and family. Many times if you don't know who you are in Christ or if your confidence level of your own self esteem isn't sure of the abilities that God has placed in you, the sounds of the judgement of God can be overwhelming coming out of even the most intentional hearts of love.
You will find that no matter how many friends you have on Facebook, what matters is how many of them actually spend time with you. You will find if you have 100 friends and only 1 like on your post, there must be something devastatingly wrong with you. Or perhaps you don't post much and you tell people you only use it for pictures of family, yet you search each post judging whether or not that person is within your standards, or if they have a better life than you.
You will find that there are many people who have it all together, at least on the outside. Success, beauty, luck, blessings, friends and joy all surrounds them. They are encouraged lifted up and inspired by others and they will never understand how someone in depression can't get their life together and be who God created them to be.
But I've also learned this...
In everyday, God is there, whether you see huge miracles and have revivals around every corner, he is also in those still quiet moments encouraging you to be who he created you to be. Encouraging you to take one more step. Wooing you to trust in him.
That the only self help book anyone should care to live up to is the word of God. That you might find some hard and challenging opportunities in there, but all you have to do is tell God, and God only, that you are too weak to do it on your own and you need his help.
That confidence comes by your FAITH that God is enough for every situation that you will encounter and that every encounter is those that God puts before you, not the ones that you try to force yourself into.
That no matter how much you invest in opportunities to help the world, the most fulfilling opportunity is the time you invest in your family. You can help others until your blue in the face, and you can be overwhelmed at the amount of work it goes into to set up for a city wide revival, or you can begin the revival in your home and let God do all the work for you and watch it spread from there. You don't have to be ashamed because you are not doing enough in your community and that revival is lack because you didn't do your part. You can also be sure that living like that is not selfish, even if you didn't help at the homeless shelter yesterday.
That churches are no more to blame for your broken relationship or your lack of faith, any more than drug dealers are at fault for the massive drug problem we have in our cities.... think about that.
That no matter your hurts, no matter your trials, no matter your feelings of insecurity, no matter your sickness, no matter your abuse, no matter your amount of friends on social media, you can never put a label at the source of an "empty hole" in your life. The empty hole is placed there by God so that you crave his attention as much as he craves yours. And you never have to live up to anyone's expectation of how they feel your life should be lived, because it was never about you and them...it has always been about you and God.
And....you are inspiring just because of that.
But here is what I learned...
You will find in this life, that much of the time, when your sight is on the respect or popularity of others, you are going to start to live a life that was not intended for you. You are going to find that the more acceptable you are to others, the more you crave their fellowship and attention.
You will find that the more you read self help books, you will give your self just one more standard that you can't live up to. You will notice that you will start to see yourself in how others perceive your life should look like. You will determine that you either have to live a life that reflects their box, or you will shut down and find yourself depressed at your inability to perform to those standards.
You will find that you can even get hurt by Christian friends and family. Many times if you don't know who you are in Christ or if your confidence level of your own self esteem isn't sure of the abilities that God has placed in you, the sounds of the judgement of God can be overwhelming coming out of even the most intentional hearts of love.
You will find that no matter how many friends you have on Facebook, what matters is how many of them actually spend time with you. You will find if you have 100 friends and only 1 like on your post, there must be something devastatingly wrong with you. Or perhaps you don't post much and you tell people you only use it for pictures of family, yet you search each post judging whether or not that person is within your standards, or if they have a better life than you.
You will find that there are many people who have it all together, at least on the outside. Success, beauty, luck, blessings, friends and joy all surrounds them. They are encouraged lifted up and inspired by others and they will never understand how someone in depression can't get their life together and be who God created them to be.
But I've also learned this...
In everyday, God is there, whether you see huge miracles and have revivals around every corner, he is also in those still quiet moments encouraging you to be who he created you to be. Encouraging you to take one more step. Wooing you to trust in him.
That the only self help book anyone should care to live up to is the word of God. That you might find some hard and challenging opportunities in there, but all you have to do is tell God, and God only, that you are too weak to do it on your own and you need his help.
That confidence comes by your FAITH that God is enough for every situation that you will encounter and that every encounter is those that God puts before you, not the ones that you try to force yourself into.
That no matter how much you invest in opportunities to help the world, the most fulfilling opportunity is the time you invest in your family. You can help others until your blue in the face, and you can be overwhelmed at the amount of work it goes into to set up for a city wide revival, or you can begin the revival in your home and let God do all the work for you and watch it spread from there. You don't have to be ashamed because you are not doing enough in your community and that revival is lack because you didn't do your part. You can also be sure that living like that is not selfish, even if you didn't help at the homeless shelter yesterday.
That churches are no more to blame for your broken relationship or your lack of faith, any more than drug dealers are at fault for the massive drug problem we have in our cities.... think about that.
That no matter your hurts, no matter your trials, no matter your feelings of insecurity, no matter your sickness, no matter your abuse, no matter your amount of friends on social media, you can never put a label at the source of an "empty hole" in your life. The empty hole is placed there by God so that you crave his attention as much as he craves yours. And you never have to live up to anyone's expectation of how they feel your life should be lived, because it was never about you and them...it has always been about you and God.
And....you are inspiring just because of that.
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