Trample insecurity

Insecurity with its mate inadequacy can quickly stunt the growth of our identity as God’s children and stifle the gifting that God has placed in us. Insecurity and inadequacy find their place when we make comparisons with others and then we forget that our confidence is not in our own abilities but in God.

We all know we will disappoint ourselves when we fail or do not come up to the mark we have set for ourselves. But we will never disappoint God. Disappointment comes when things do not work out as expected. God knows how it’s all going to work out before it happens, so he is not going to be disappointed. Instead, he sees every failure and perceived disappointment as an opportunity for growth and to have another shot at whatever it may be, until we succeed. What we must not do is give up, especially before we’ve even tried or worst still, never try again. 

We were visiting the Yorkshire Dales, one of the most beautiful hill areas of England known for walks, hikes and even a little mountaineering. We were hoping to take a walk to a local beauty spot but were almost put off by the many, many hikers kitted out in boots, rucksacks and all-weather clothing. Our normal wear, with sandals and trainers, seemed hopelessly inadequate and made us feel the same. With trepidation, we overcame our fears and set off for what was really an afternoon stroll, quickly realising everyone else was also wearing normal clothing with sandals or trainers.  Our fully kitted out hikers had probably not been on our walk at all but had spent the day high up in the fells where their clothing was essential. Our sense of inadequacy had almost robbed us of our beautiful walk.

When we first started playing golf, I too was almost overwhelmed with insecurity when I saw golfers wearing smart brand-named clothing with Ping or Calloway clubs looking very much the part. However, watching them tee off at the first hole and my insecurities vanished as I watched them hit a shot that scuttled along the ground and entered the long grass. All the gear does not a golfer make.

However, this can also all too easily happen in church when we compare ourselves, usually unfavourably with others. We think I could never pray like that lady or prophesy like that man or lead worship like – well you fill in the gap. God doesn’t want you to pray like anyone else – he wants you to talk to him in the way that only you can. If he gives you a word or picture to share, he wants you to share it in your own inimitable style. 

When we let insecurity and inadequacy come into our hearts and minds, we steal not just from ourselves but others who want to hear what we have to pray or share. We’re letting God down too – not that he is bothered by that – but he wants the best for us, and the best is to quash the voices that tell us we are no good compared to others. We are unique, wonderfully and fearfully made with so many gifts to share and so many prayers to be prayed and good works to be undertaken.

Trample inadequacy and insecurity underfoot and be who God has made you to be – a one-off -fully equipped for all God has called you to be and do.

Not letting our history define our destiny

It can be a real stumbling block in our Christian walk if we believe that our history, where we’ve come from, our family, our education, our work, even our successes and especially our failures are the defining factors in fulfilling God’s plans for our lives. 

The reality is that when we became believers and offered our lives into God’s service, the Bible assures us we became a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5: 17). In fact Peter tells believers that they are now a chosen people, a royal priesthood … 1 Peter 2: 9

A royal priesthood is quite a promotion for us ordinary folks. Here in Britain we have a pretty good grasp of what royalty means. We have a Royal Family who, since the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936, have modelled to the nation what royalty means. It is a life of privilege and wealth which some people get a bit hung up on, but it is also a life of service, duty and responsibility to the nation. Her Majesty the Queen has modelled this for 67 years now and she has passed on this life to the next generations. 

So what does that mean for us – this royal priesthood?  It means we have been born into royalty with all the privileges and responsibilities that brings.  Jesus is our King of Kings and our role is to promote his Kingdom and bring His will, plans and purposes into those areas that we are responsible for. Our background is not the defining issue in our lives.

Our areas of responsibility start with our own lives, then our families, our church, workplace or neighbourhood. We do this through a life of worship offering sacrifices of praise, worship and prayer – the role of the priest - then performing acts of service into those areas of responsibility. 

King David is a great example of this.  He was not born into a life of royalty, indeed he was the youngest brother of a large family of brothers. When Samuel the prophet came to anoint one of the brothers king, David was not called to the line up. He was out with the sheep and more than one commentator has said this may be because he was actually a half brother, born to Jesse but not Jesse’s wife. He was the despised youngest brother. 

This can be seen in Eliab’s response when David went down to the Philistine battlefield where Goliath was holding sway.  Eliab was plain nasty to him.

David was not deterred by his brother’s hostility, all those years of looking after the sheep, worshipping and fellowshipping with God, had prepared him to overthrown this uncircumcised Philistine who is defying the armies of the living God (1 Samuel 17: 26). David wasn’t frightened – he knew who God is – and holy zeal for his honour rose up and the enemy of the Lord was defeated.

The Bible is full of stories of the least becoming God’s man or woman of the hour, throwing off their background and circumstances and stepping into their God given destiny.

Judah, the fourth son born to Leah, the despised wife of Jacob, and yet he rose to be leader of the whole family. His history is very chequered and yet from his lineage came both King David and the Messiah – Jesus Christ – the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Joseph, the second youngest son, sold into slavery, imprisoned on a false charge and yet rising into his destiny at God’s appointed moment to save not just the nation of Egypt but also his own family. 

Gideon, the least of the least, yet when God called, he too was able to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites.

Even the great prophet Moses, the younger son, so fearful after years looking after the sheep that he was terrified of facing Pharaoh, became in God’s hands one of the mightiest men of all time.

The Godly annals of history will not be filled with kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, emirs or any other national leaders. They will be filled with the names of the royal priesthood, faithful men and women of God who have served loyally, no matter what their background, their education, or situations and entered into their destiny. 

They have trusted God despite their weaknesses, real or imagined and believed that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3: 20 – 21.

Keep burning

Romans 12: 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord

Keeping our passion ablaze can be very difficult.  As I said in my previous blog “zeal needs a fuel” and the fuel is Jesus himself and our persistent pursuit of him.

Too often Christians look for a change of circumstances to keep their passion burning. Their thoughts might run along the lines of if only my husband / wife was a Christian it would be so much easier, if only I could change my job, house, car, school or even church I would regain my passion.  Some Christians go from conference to conference to keep their passion alight. 

But passion comes from the inside not our outward circumstances. We can be passionate people in the midst of the most mundane tasks when we get the revelation Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3: 23 – 24).

 In the day, I was a stay at home mother with four small children and there came a time when I resented this. Our church was hosting one ‘big name’ speaker after another and for various reasons I always seemed to be missing out at home.  One day I was having an almighty grumble to God about this and then very quietly I got the amazing revelation of how God viewed motherhood.  He told me motherhood is one of the highest callings a woman could have. (Please if you are single or cannot have children this does not mean you cannot live a fulfilling and satisfying life.) I thought of Mary, Elizabeth and all the nameless women in the Bible and down the years who had birthed and raised men and women of God. What an honour.

This changed my outlook on my life completely.  No longer was motherhood something to endure till I could get a ‘proper’ job but a God given calling. There were still many times in the midst of the domestic humdrum that I grumbled but now undergirding my life was a sense of purpose that sustained me through even the most tiresome of situations.

God also promised me that if we ever needed a babysitter he would provide and if I was unable to get to a meeting or conference because of childcare commitments, I would never miss out.  Immediately my heart was at peace and God has been utterly faithful to his promise.  My husband and I were even able to go to Uganda for two and a half weeks whilst a wonderful couple in the church took over our lives and children.  I can confidently assure you that 25 years later, I have never missed out on anything by looking after my children. Today it is my privilege to encourage other young ladies struggling with their calling to motherhood to stand firm against the voice of the world that says you can only find true fulfilment in going out to work.

As Simon Ponsonby writes our passion, our destiny and calling come from within not from our outward circumstances. The Westminster Catechism says, ‘Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever’. That does not come from our education, work, relationships or even church. It comes from our relationship with our heavenly Father where we can truly find satisfaction and fulfilment in even the most boring duties.

God has called us to a life of love with him and others. As we pursue him we find that our destiny is not in some mighty ministry or incredible career but in loving our family, the lost, the hurt, the rejected, those we find ourselves around every day. We are there to share God’s light and love with them and our part is to keep the light shining brightly through a passionate pursuit of the one who came as the Light of the World. 

Called to be different

I had the privilege recently of attending the memorial thanksgiving service for an incredible man of God. We heard about his life; the way he reached out to people with the Gospel and saw them saved, the acts of kindness he showed to the poor and needy. He was an elder and then pastor of a church and ran an organisation reaching out to Muslims. He was also a wonderful husband and father.

We can either be incredibly intimidated by such testimony or wonderfully inspired. We are intimidated when we compare ourselves to people like this and find that we are woefully falling short of the example they have set. 

However there are no comparisons in the Kingdom. Each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made and we are unique; there is no one like us either in personality, looks, gifting or calling. God wants us different; he made us that way.

We need instead to be inspired. The theme running through all the testimonies of this man was his enthusiasm for God and the Kingdom. That is something we can all have. It may manifest in different ways because of our different character and personality but we can all be really enthusiastic for God and the calling he has placed on our lives.

For some this will be a natural exuberance but for others it will be a deep joy manifested in much quieter ways. God will not ask us when we stand before him why we were not like another. Instead, as the parable of the talents shows, he will talk to us about the calling he placed on our lives and how we used what he gave us. 

This seems to be a season of God confirming and strengthening calling and then encouraging us to pursue it in ways that suit our personality. God only wants one of each of us because he made each of us unique. Together we make up the whole picture. Together with each of us playing our part to the best of our ability this world can be reached with the love of God. Together we can see our family and friends saved; we can see the hungry fed and the lonely placed in families. We can see the overthrow of the giants of our day; secular humanism, political correctness, the cult of fame and celebrity, violence and godlessness.

All it takes is each of us to love the Lord our God with enthusiasm and to walk in what he has called us to be and do with no comparisons but honouring and celebrating our differences and recognising, with thankfulness, our God given uniqueness. 

Psalm 8

Psalm 8

Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’

So God created mankind in his own image,
            in the image of God he created them;
            male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ Genesis 1: 26 - 28

Psalm 8 is one of those wonderful psalms of David which praises the Creator and his wonderful creation. You can imagine David sitting looking up at the starlit Milky Way marvelling at the wonders of the heavens.

Several years ago we went to Namibia and stayed out in the desert in a remote guest house. Electricity was provided by generators so there was little light pollution. We walked a short way up the untarred road by the light of the moon and gazed at the night sky. It was absolutely stunning. Stars hung so brightly that it felt as if you could reach up and pick them. The sky was covered in stars and planets, far more than I had ever seen before even in a dark place in Britain. It was as if the heavens were aglow with tiny lights.

It must have been a night sky of such beauty that David gazed with wonder.  He marvelled that God ordained praise to overthrow every enemy not from the powerful, rich and famous but from infants and children.

As he considered the glories of the heavens he was amazed that God should even remember, let alone honour or even consider puny man. Man is the apex of God’s creation, made in his image and created only a little lower than the heavenly beings, the angels.

In this space age we have some understanding of the heavens that David did not have yet it is this very knowledge that we have acquired that should make us wonder afresh at man’s position in the creative order. As telescopes and space probes reveal ever more amazing sights in the heavens; black holes and star systems, nebula and exploding gases we realise how awesome is this creation and therefore how truly incredible is the Creator.

Yet even more amazingly, God has assigned to man the most wonderful honour of ruling over this breathtaking creation in subordination to God himself. David remembered man’s original call given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  How far short mankind has fallen from this God given mandate.

However the writer of Hebrews in recalling these verses (Hebrews 2: 8 – 9) shows that their ultimate fulfilment came in Jesus Christ and that through him mankind will once again fulfil their destiny.

Next time you have opportunity to gaze at the night sky, marvel again with David at our awesome God and his amazing creation and remember our true calling to rule over this creation with love and compassion and with the wisdom of God not to exploit and manipulate it for our own ends but to steward it for God’s glory.