Insecurity
What Makes You Feel Insecure?
My grandchildren are already winners before they compete in life
I know that their weaknesses are the factor that keeps a winner humble
Great achievements without character don’t win favor in God’s sight
Character wins favor with God and man
You don’t have to be unhappy about coming up short when you gave it your all
And came up incomplete as long as your character stood through it all
The greatest prize is not the certificate or trophy
The greatest prize is God’s grace, His favor
Because His grace is what gives us the strength to get up and try again
What Makes You Feel Insecure?
I have nine grandchildren.
Whether you ask me or not,
I will tell you, they are the greatest.
I could not trade one of them for any other child
in the world, so they must be the best.
There are two boys and seven girls.
Four were born into the family and
five came into the family through marriage.
In the spring of 2021,
the oldest is 20 and the youngest is 8.
Each one of them has a different personality.
Some are very active and others, laid back.
Over the past 20 years,
I have observed these grandchildren.
Because they are the greatest,
I want them to be the greatest.
I pray for them to become every-
thing God intended them to be.
I pray they will develop every gift and talent
God has given them to the fullest potential.
Whether I was there at their birth
or did not meet them till after they had
graduated from high school…
I am addicted to loving them,
I just can’t help myself.
All of them have one thing in common and yet,
it shows up differently in each one of them.
This one thing has the power to
harm and even destroy their lives.
This one thing is Insecurity…
The feeling you can’t handle something
The sense of being weak.
Insecurity manifest its
self in feeling “Unhappy”.
When one of my grandchildren is unhappy,
I know it is caused by insecurity.
They feel they cannot control
or handle something in life.
There are many ways to handle
unhappiness or insecurity.
Many of those ways will not
result in a better life of happiness.
Over the past 20 years, my grandchildren
remind me of my struggles with insecurity…
My struggle with unhappiness.
As a boy, I realized I
was full of insecurities.
Even though my grandparents made me
feel I was the greatest, I knew I was not.
As much as they spoke life and encouraged
me, I knew I did not measure up.
At one point in my childhood
I made a list of my insecurities.
I was determined to face them and
pray for God to take them away.
My list is something I could not share
with anyone because I was too insecure.
But each insecurity falls into
one of the common categories…
Power to learn or education
Family status
Status of parents
Income level of family
Shape, looks, and size of your body
All our lives we deal with…
Education, finances, family influence,
physical appearance, and health.
If we are insecure in any one of
these areas, we will be unhappy.
The truth is…
We are all weak in every
one of these categories.
As I said…
I made a list and I prayed for God
to take away my insecurities.
God never answered my prayer.
The first thing I had to learn was my
weaknesses don’t matter to God.
He loves me for who I am
and sees great potential for me.
The apostle Paul had to deal with something
in his life that kept him from enjoying
“surpassingly great revelations”
2 Corinthians 12:7
Paul says this…
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness."
v.6,7
Although Paul could not boast and enjoy
the “surpassingly great revelations”,
he did find security and happiness.
It was in God’s “Grace”…
The favor of God.
My greatest joy is knowing God has favor
on me no matter how weak I may feel.
How insecure I am no matter
what I cannot do, God still loves me.
God still looks at me with favor.
I love to watch my grand-
children work at something…
It may be to play an instrument
or play a sport.
I have seen them try with
all their might and not win.
To seemingly fail and be
unhappy with themselves.
It is at that time, I love to give them a
hug and tell them I am proud of them.
I have seen those moments of showing
favor, my acceptance and love, become
encouragement to get back at it and try again.
Paul saw his weakness as an opportunity
for Christ’s power to be on him.
He delighted in the fact that when
his efforts did not measure up to his
expectations, God still loved him.
God’s grace, His favor, is the goal.
In the end, did I please God?
Not… Did I win the battle over my weakness
and stand in the winner’s circle with a trophy?
My grandchildren are already
winners before they compete in life.
I know that their weaknesses are
the factor that keeps a winner humble.
Great achievements without character
don’t win favor in God’s sight.
Character wins favor with God and man.
You don’t have to be unhappy about
coming up short when you gave it your all,
and came up incomplete…
As long as your character stood through it all.
The greatest prize is not the certificate or trophy.
The greatest prize is God’s grace, His favor.
Because His grace is what gives us
the strength to get up and try again.
Scripture Reading
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NIV
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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