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When You Don't Feel Like You Measure Up

5/12/2014

2 Comments

 
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Our first Live It Out post!  Are you ready for transformation?  I am!  If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you can read more here .

This week we'll focus on those times when we feel like we don't measure up.

In Becoming More Than A Good Bible Study Girl, Lysa TerKeurst writes

If Satan can use our everyday experiences, both big and small to cripple our true identity, then he renders God's people totally ineffective for the Kingdom of Christ.
page 40
Satan knows that inadequacy is a perfect in road to spiritual defeat.  If he can make me feel inadequate, he knows he's much more likely to leave me in a state of defeat.   And if I'm defeated, I won't attempt anything that day for the Kingdom's cause.
Live It Out Question:
What are some everyday experiences that have left you feeling inadequate?

Also in the book, Lysa writes
When circumstances get entangled with our feelings of inadequacy, we tend to redefine our identity.
page 42
I can totally identify with this.  I catch myself doing it all of the time.  I failed, therefore, I must be a failure.  Nope. Not True.  I have just let my circumstances tell me who I am, and they are not dictators of my identity.  The only dictator of my identity is God.   

What's sad is we daily redefine ourselves as something we are not, and most of the time have no idea who we really are to begin with.  Before we redefine our identity, we have to define it.  This is a crucial element of our spiritual lives that  often gets skipped over leaving room for the enemy's lies.  So, let's do that this week, starting today - define our identity.
Live It Out Question:
So, what is your identity?
What is true about you no matter what the circumstance?
To fight feelings of inadequacy, feeling that we don't measure up, we have to first know our true identity and second, believe it.
When God's word gets inside of us, it becomes the new way we process life.
page 34
And that's what we need to do, let God's word get inside of us, let it define us,  so that when less than ideal circumstances arise, we can process it in a new way. 

I've given you a couple of questions to think about and I challenge you to get your Bible out and find something that is true about you, no matter what the circumstance. 

Here's a couple of clues to get you started - 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, 2 Corinthians 12:9,  John 15:15.  Feel free to find your own, the Bible is a big book full of great truth. Don't be limited by this list.  Share your responses, your struggles, your encouragement, the verse that you dig up, or whatever you have to share in the comments or over on the Facebook group.

XOXO,
Amy

2 Comments
Christy
5/13/2014 04:23:09 am

Reading Paul's letters to the Christians in Asia Minor and Greece makes me feel inadequate. Paul prayed for trials because he wanted to have a stronger faith. That takes real guts! I hope and pray to have that kind of faith one day.

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Amy
5/13/2014 05:11:32 am

I'm right there with you Christy. I have trouble sharing my faith in Wal-Mart, much less a whole continent!

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