Something that I encounter on a daily basis through interactions with women in personal/professional relationships and also with the work I do, is women who struggle with how they feel about themselves. Whether it has to relate to body image, relationship choices, lack of or need for attention, or feeling as if they matter or not, are daily struggles for several of them. Different women from different age groups (ALL) have had some kind of struggle in regards to self....Now this doesn't apply to all women across the globe.... but a great percentage have daily conflicts with how they feel about themselves. It's an EPIDEMIC out here of women who truly do not know their worth and value in Christ and settle for less than what God truly intended for them. So if you can relate to this..... THIS IS FOR YOU! :)
Ephesians 2:10 tells us (in the NLT version) that we are God's masterpiece and that He created us ANEW in Christ Jesus to do the work He called us to do long ago. God covers in many scriptures what He thinks about you and how you are special and have such great treasure and value inside YOU.... But sometimes the hardest person to convince is OURSELVES. One major area I want to bring your focus into this week is in RELATIONSHIPS...... Women make the most careless decisions when it comes to the care of the heart. I heard a preacher say, "So many of us have laid down and allowed someone to do open heart surgery on us without any anethestic."(WOW!!) How many times have you regretted making a decision to give someone a chance, or compromised your values and slept with someone because it may have promised a glimpse of a relationship, or allowed someone to treat you in such a disrespectful way??? And the aftermath of it was..... hurt.????? It's called mishandling. When you neglect to give yourself the utmost care and concern, YOU are mishandling the precious gift that YOU are. God has entrusted our SOULS to us and many times we are careless with how we handle this GREAT RESPONSIBILITY.
When you make decisions to remain in a relationship with a man who consistently tears you down emotionally, physically or mentally, this is mishandling the potential of YOU. You are the person subjecting yourself to this injustice. When we make the decision to continually be with a man who is unfaithful and question yourself of what you have done wrong, that's mishandling YOU again! Now I am not saying it easy to get out of these situations..... I realize that the strength to leave sometimes seems impossible.. Even the thought of being alone to some is scary. But when you begin to recognize the greatness that you possess through a relationship with the FATHER, He makes it easy for you in time. Yes things have happened in childhood were fathers are absent, you have been abused, you were told horrible things, witnessed horrible things and it leaves a HUGE IMPACT on you.... It really does..... But there comes a point where HEALING needs to take place so that you will no longer make decisions that could cause damaging effects to your purpose in God. I recognize the need for processing what has happened to us in our lives.... I wouldn't be a therapist if I didn't believe it.... But i think there comes a point where we have to say.... IS THIS ALL I AM WILLING TO OFFER MYSELF??? OR AM I WORTH MUCH MORE?? ...
We as women have such a great capacity to feel and think so many things at one time...which is an overwhelming experience..... That's why we should not and cannot follow our hearts or our emotions.... We follow HIM.... That line that says: "Follow your heart" is misleading and false. Yes we are human beings that have emotions, but we have control over these emotions. In Jeremiah 17:9, the bible tells the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can truly know it?? So we are not subject to how we feel, we are led by the SPIRIT! We follow HIM.
So it is essential and absolutely necessary to deal with the inner conflicts and issues we feel about SELF, so that we begin to handle self in the way God intended with the utmost care and love. Not only but also to focus on what God says about us so we can live in the abundance of not just WHO we are..... but WHO He is...
Affirmation of the Day: I am Important. I matter. I have something great to offer. I will not settle for less.
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