I will be the first to confess that I love clothes. I love shoes. I love jewelry. I love allowing my adorning to be external. I didn't care much for these things just five, six, seven years ago. What has happened? Speaking from deep in my heart, it's fear. Fear of not looking pretty enough. Fear of not impressing people enough. Fear of not feeling good enough. Fear of "Oh my gosh! If I don't buy it now it will be gone!" Oh, you can relate? What I know deep in my heart is this: Jesus is {enough}. The only One who'll ever be enough.
I fight it.
I fight, daily, the desire for more. The desire for pretty things. The desire to mask my insecurities with a false security that drives me straight into the ground. Oh, but the rush - the thrill - of buying that top or those pants that fit perfectly or that necklace that totally makes a face glow. Yes, I fall victim to that rush; that thrill. It's a death trap. The deadly trap of finding comfort in things that die.
The trap of impressing people. The trap of (sigh) fitting in.
Keeping up with all the latest trends is one of the gravest dangers. This trap has so many of us chasing after clothes that fall apart during the third wear, losing our real identity, sacrificing who we are to impress people we don't know. And heaven forbid we wear the same thing too much because {oh my gosh} people may notice. Lord, help us. Help me.
How do we deal with this? How do we change?
"Even now,' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." (Joel 2:12-13)
If someone were to ask me to describe God in a few short words, it would be: gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. I've witnessed those very things from Him in my own life. God, when we come with our hearts open wide and wholly, is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. No matter what we've done. No matter what we're struggling with. He has the power to break the chains holding us down. Period.
The hands that made you are the hands that can save you. The hands that adore you. The hands that don't see you as a number, but as a soul. The hands that comfort you. Those nail-pierced hands are your source of strength. Those hands have been on this same earth. Those hands get what you're going through. And at the end of the day, no matter what, this is the truth: you are loved.
"If you listen long enough to all the loud voices about who you should be, you grow deaf to the beauty of who you are. The world will say they will love you if you are beautiful - but the truth is you are beautiful because you are loved." -Ann Voskamp
Be your own kind of beautiful.
What is it that's keeping you from returning to God with all your heart? For me, 1) I'm scared because that means a number of things. I might have to give up things I don't want to give up (poor me). I may have to put others before me. I may have to stop going to Starbucks as I please (gulp). I may have to sacrifice my comfort to be led by Comfort Himself, 2) I. AM. A. CONSUMER. I am single and I am a consumer. I have to answer to no one. And that's a scary thought, because, really, I do have to answer to Someone, someday, and His name is Jesus. You ever read 'The Final Judgement' passage in Matthew 25? I mean. Blank stare. If that doesn't change your life . . .
God loves to refine and transform, and He'll do it when we present ourselves with hearts and hands and love and ears wide open.
I don't preach at you, I want to stretch you. Stretch your thoughts. Stretch your actions. Stretch your heart. Stretch your vision. You've been so intricately created by a Sovereign and Supreme God who wants to use you in the biggest ways for His Glory and His Kingdom. Your story has a purpose. Your very breath breathes purpose.
The scary thing about feeding our wants and desires is that it clouds our purpose. It feeds the desire to be someone we're not. It inserts fear where fearless and free should reign. Run to Him. And, as you run, what hindered love will only become part of the story.
This quote by A.W. Tozer has messed me up, and I hope it will open your eyes to real happiness. Joy.
"The man who has God for His treasure has all things in one. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he now has it all in One, and he has it purely legitimately and forever." -From the book 'The Pursuit of God'
"Be your own kind of beautiful."
ReplyDeleteYes.... this is where it's at. Oh I love that sentence.
Amen. Our identity is in Him alone. He is our treasure that we will never lose!
ReplyDeleteOh how He loves and adores His creation, especially when we walk in our truest identity!