Sunday, August 25, 2013

Get out of your own way...

Get out of your own way already! 

Ouch! Did you feel the sting of that one? I know I have. I saw this image and thought to myself "Wow... I've heard that a few times in my life!" Think God is trying to tell me something? What's crazy is that each time I hear it, my response usually is " I thought I did"!! You learn that as you grow as a person, emotionally and spiritually, our issues are really more comparable to a game of Whack-a-Mole! 

We as women are attacked hard and as you will always hear me say, the enemy doesn't fight fair. I've been asked before, "Why is it that is always has to be a battle? Why is it always so hard?" Well the answer is found way back in the beginning of time, in a garden....Genesis 3:15 spells it out for us. After Eve was tricked into eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, it was game on.... I used to read that and think, man, it sounds like God is giving the enemy the go ahead to battle us women... "I will put enmity between you and the woman..." Kinda sounds like He is setting that battle in place turning the enemy loose on us! Victim Mentality at it's finest! The other day as I read that scripture, God showed me... the enemy was already our enemy! God didn't need to put that in place, it was already there, he hated us from the moment of creation.... He was telling Satan WATCH OUT. SHE is YOUR enemy! FROM her will come LIFE... VICTORY as her seed shall CRUSH YOUR HEAD. 

Ladies, that is POWERFUL stuff! That is some serious POWER bestowed on us and we need to recognize it! 

For so long, I had some serious victim mentality going on, because it seemed I was always a victim. I was a victim of sexual molestation, I was a victim of bullies who destroyed my self-esteem- mooing in the hallways as I walked past them in Jr High, I was a victim of an abusive boyfriend, I was a victim of domestic violence, I was a victim of date rape, I was cheated on and lied to over and over... VICTIM, VICTIM, VICTIM..... The enemy had me at place of some serious suicidal depression at one point.... I hated myself. I was ashamed to be me... Raising three kids alone, felt unwanted, unlovable and definitely couldn't stand what I looked like. I wasn't very nice to myself. One weekend I went on a retreat and God showed the minister a picture of me... I was laying there, binding my own hands and feet up... She couldn't figure out what it was or why I was doing it... then she said it. "You don't like the way you look!" I cried and cried as all the self contempt and hurt poured out. 

When we don't love ourselves, we bind our own hands and feet! We get in our own way! You are fearfully and wonderfully made... God Himself said at the beginning of creation "Let us make man in our own image." That means the WOMAN too! You were created in His image! When we fail to recognize the greatness of who we are, we are failing to recognize the greatness of who GOD is! 

You can love God with all your heart, but miss out on His blessing if you don't get this... We are surrounded by a culture that paints a picture of what we should be... but not who we were created to be! We look at these models, these actresses- all this FAKE stuff! The music tells us women we have to be the bad girls, the naughty girls, girls telling the guys to come and get it, it's all about sex, sex, and more sex... And trust and believe me when I say I get it.. I loved all those songs and played that sexy promiscuous part very well....I was the one in my group of friends who used to talk about the men like they were my conquests... I wasn't going to be anyone's victim! Well I was definitely fooling myself... I didn't love myself enough to know I was worth so much more.   

Because of Jesus, I can say I am worlds away from that girl! I can say... I am a Queen! I hold my head high and know I am worth the wait. I am worth being loved! I am someone's "good thing"! I am pretty bad ass!  That old mindset you got has got to be thrown away! But I am not going to lie, it's a process. For example, I am a flirt. I know it. Always have been and God has been dealing with this in me for awhile. I am working on it. It surprises me how many guys, my age AND older who seem to move real quickly in trying to come at me for either a booty call or even trying to get me engaged in their suggestive conversations. It's taken me awhile to be able to not excuse it and call them on it, and tell them I am NOT that woman anymore. Each time I have done it, I get stronger.

I recognize now that I have a purpose and powerful destiny in who I am as the Daughter of the Most High. I refuse to let the enemy trip me up take me down.. I was given the OFFENSIVE power and authority to CRUSH the head of the enemy trying to take me out! That means, I ain't a victim!!  No man, no number on the scale, no NOTHING can take that from me. 

Sisters, as long as the enemy can keep you looking down, he keeps you from looking UP! I don't care what it is you have come through or had done to you, YOU have to stop binding your own hands and feet so you can walk in the greatness of who you are! You gotta know you are precious! You are beautiful and you have a purpose and a destiny WAITING for you to step into! There is no one holding you back, but you! 

So untie your hands already! Ask God to forgive you for hatin' on His creation (YOU), ask Him to forgive you for accepting a victim mentality and declare your forgiveness of those who have hurt you. Ask Him to show you what He sees. Start speaking over yourself that you are a Queen, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, you speak life into others and that you are blessed to be a blessing! 

C'mon, I dare you! If God could take a hot mess like me and bring me to where I am at today, He can definitely do it for you! You already have the victory, now take hold of it and start walking in it! 


Lots of love...

Til next time,

~C



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