It’s difficult to take our own advice, isn’t it? It’s much easier to have faith in someone else’s ability to overcome than to put that faith in ourselves. Or at least, in my experience, it has been. We give them scripture after scripture to ground them, we affirm them, we tell them to pray because we know all of these things work when we do them intentionally and when we seek God earnestly and honestly, but when it’s we who are struggling, it feels different, doesn’t it? And even though we know we have access to the same God, sometimes there’s still a disconnect. Or at least, it has felt that way in the past for me. It felt as though what I was going through was insurmountable and that there was no escaping my feelings of inferiority or insecurity. Now, of course, we know these are lies. We know there’s nothing we can’t give to God that He will not liberate us from, but we have to also believe in the power He has to liberate us and exercise faith. 

I know this feeling of twoness quite well. If I may be candid, it overwhelmed me last week. Recently, God has elevated me to a new position, a position that I’m genuinely passionate about and that I sought after diligently. But last week, the excitement I had when I asked God for this job dwindled.

Something just did not feel right. I did not feel right. All of a sudden, I no longer felt I was the best person for the job and as though I was totally incapable of doing the job I asked for and that God had given me. Now all of those feelings, which were of my flesh, were complete lies, and in my heart of hearts, I knew that, but I struggled to get my flesh, my feelings, and my head on the same page.

And that’s what I want to dive into and prayerfully, help us, as Christians, to realize something. There are more than enough scriptures that tell us of the power that we have simply because of God, and His presence within us. We know that greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world (1 John 4:4). We know that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, of power, and of sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). We know that through Christ we have victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). But it is not enough to know where these texts are in the Bible, we have to believe and apply them. Their meaning and power have to jump off of the page and be onto our hearts. They are more than just texts or words, they are God’s promises and assurances to us His children.

I was suffering last week, not because I was in the wrong place or because I didn’t belong but because instead of attacking my flesh with scriptures, with what I know and believe to be true of God and myself, I accepted the lies of my flesh. I accepted that I was an imposter and ill-equipped for this new job and I was wrong to do that. Jesus did not die for any of us to walk in anything but victory. I spent so much of my life being insecure, believing I was not good enough and questioning my value, and by God’s grace, I overcame those thoughts and feelings by dwelling in what God says about me, in what He has done for me. But then, I started my new job and momentarily forsook the power and authority God gave me and almost completely dimmed my light but thanks be to God for His presence within me which is stronger than my flesh, and for the overwhelming evidence of my strength in and through Him and Him alone!

James 1:22 exhorts to us that we ought to be doers and hearers of the Word, otherwise we will deceive ourselves. There is no reason for us to be deceived any longer when we know the truth and have access to that truth and a portion of that truth within us. We cannot be like a wave tossed to and fro (James 1:6). We have to choose whether we stand entirely on Christ the Solid Rock or lean unto our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) but we cannot do both.