Look Beyond The World System

Most of us lack some measure of self-confidence. Though we seek to conceal it behind many layers of bravo and self-promotion, we all suffer from occasional feelings of inadequacy.  We often measure success by a self-imposed comfort zone. Feelings of insecurity hinder our ability to reach for our maximum performance potential.

Christians too are not immune to confidence issues. Feelings of insufficiency are universal to mankind. Rather than using our skills and talents as a means of uplifting and promoting others, we behave much as does the world. We seek every opportunity to exalt not our brothers, but rather ourselves.

Yet we, as the children of God, have something within us that is alien to the world system: we have a spirit that believes in the power of God’s written word. We have the power to lay down self and pick up a cross of meekness, kindness, and power.

Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone

Christians often wear a word mask. We talk about God’s deeds, and His promises. We lay claims to great works, and we spend much time fruitlessly attempting to cast out devils by word of tongue. Yet when the dust clears, and the hour is late, and the children are rebelling, and the sickness remains, and the family is shattered and broken, and death still holds the hand of a loved one, the words of grandeur collapse beneath the weight of a living world. So our work for God ends up being limited to a boastful mouth and a mask that slips into darkness when the weight of night accumulates upon us. 

Are you tired of playing a game? Are you ready to lay down the mask and bear your true feelings to the world? Do you long to step out of your personal little comfort zone so that God can truly apply your talents to His plans?

Or do you prefer to remain with the hopeless knowing of the desire that is in your heart, while living without the courage to risk failure in trying to obtain it?

Learning To Think High Thoughts About God

Breaking free of your insecurities requires several steps, the first of which involves learning to think high thoughts about God. Boastful talk lacks a true understanding of authority. Boastful talk seeks to challenge personal demons without first establishing a mind that is set upon the things of heaven and of God. Boastful talk ignores the concept of becoming a servant before seeking to be a master. Boastful talk fears the unknown, and forces a Christian to linger inside that worthless comfort zone of insecurity, feelings of inadequacy, and unspoken pride.

Do you want to break free? Do you want to stop boasting and begin working? Are you ready to lay aside pride and to risk failure?  Then learn to think high thoughts about God.

The bible speaks of a man named Moses. He began life as the son of a slave, yet he was not raised to the lifestyle of a slave. Before he could learn to speak his first words, he became the adopted son of a princess. He was raised in the seat of power and luxury. He knew and tasted the earthly pleasures of a prince.

But, like so many of us, Moses fell from grace. He murdered a man in cold blood. And then he had to live with it. In terror and shame, he fled from the consequences, from the pointing fingers, from the place of his personal shortcomings. Have you been there? Do you know the frustration and the hurt and the shame? Oh that we could escape the past and reshape to our personal dreams.

While hiding out in the wilderness, struggling to make a bearable life for himself, yet likely never being able to forget his special calling, but always holding back due to his personal failures, Moses came face to face with the living God. Scripture records it in this manner:

“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.  And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God,” (Exodus 3:1-6).

Coming face to face with the living God shook Moses to the core. In this modern world of boastful Christians, we speak as though God is our personal servant. We talk with pride and arrogance, and then we wonder why His works of old seem not present today. Perhaps if we too could know the brokenness that caused Moses to hide his face, then we too would learn to look upon God with a trembling heart rather than a prideful spirit. Perhaps then, we would see His works rather than our feeble efforts.

The story is not finished. It continues in this manner:

“And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt,” (Exodus 3:7-11).

Can you see the trembling in this broken man’s heart when he cries our, “Who am I, that I should go…”? Do you know this feeling? Are you too living with a broken past that hinders your usefulness to the future?

Ah yes, your mouth speaks great words, and you hold your mask near to your face. Yet we both know that the inner heart is that of Moses, scared, frightened, broken, completely lacking in true confidence. For in spite of all of our bold words, we never step beyond that self-imposed comfort zone. Thus the true work for which we have been called is never accomplished. We meet the stranger, but we offer no testimony. We pass the homeless, but we fear to invite them to dinner in our home. We pass a dollar to the offering plate, but we never visit the Christians who live behind block walls and iron bars, or the orphans in the lonely places, or the widows that sit in a cold, unheated house. Neither do we sing in the church choir, visit those on the sick beds, teach in the Sunday schools, nor apply our talents to an open audience.

How did God bring Moses out of his weakness? See here the words that teach a man to think high thoughts about the living God:

“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you,” (Exodus 3:12-14).

Do you know who called you out from among the world, who established your purpose for living, who sent you to be a witness and a testimony to His grace and mercy? Set the words of this scripture firmly into your mind. Know who God is. Learn His names, and call them out in your times of weakness. When you feel like putting on a mask and speaking boastful words, remember that I AM THAT I AM called you not for your glory but for His glory.

This is the beginning of how to overcome your personal insecurities. Set your mind upon heaven and the King who abides therein. Learn to be a servant. Surrender to the power of the Almighty. Think high thoughts concerning God. Recognize that He alone is the I AM THAT I AM.