He says that I am because I am and He defines me.

I have been thinking lately of the possibility that our biggest insecurities could be a result of the enemy's way of distracting us from what could exist as our most violent threat against the Kingdom. Don't be confused. What I'm saying is that when we address each individual flaw or insecurity that we may have, most of the time it is just a dumb issue of self-perception rather than an issue that Christ is concerned about changing within our hearts. We have tendencies to put our focus on certain aspects of our lives that we cannot even attempt to change, but God can.

For example, I might suggest that I fear how people perceive me. However, in theory, this fear, which is first of all not in the nature of God, could possibly be stemming from a lie planted by the Devil. I'm sure he wants to entice us into believing that our biggest flaws will prevent us from achieving our life-long dreams and goals just so we can be steered away from our focal point, which is Jesus. The reality of it is that we can't change the way that people perceive us. If we focus so much on not being something for the sheer purpose of convincing others, then we are probably faking it in the long run. There is no genuine change, no heart transformation, no significant inner conversion. Without it, we are really fooling ourselves into believing we are who we say we are. But what we're saying really isn't what we are.

Now, when I said earlier that it could be his way of distracting us from even the most violent threat against Christ, I mean that Satan loves to lure us away from anything that could draw us nearer to the heart of God. Our pride, for instance. We may not realize that it presently resides within our spirit because we are too caught up in star-gazing at our insecurities and entertaining them with the "how can i fix myself" and "what can I do to make myself look /be better?" questions. The idea is to distract. Take away from our vision of the Father and be consumed with the love of self and outer perceptions.

Our focus should not be on who we are, what we can fix, or how we can make people like us better. We get so caught up in the aesthetics of Christianity that we begin striving to make people believe we love Jesus rather than actually embracing His heart. The biggest mistake we could ever make is to look at Christianity with a Pharisaic perception. It's not about what we can do or how we/others perceive ourselves/us to be, but its more about taking on the mind of Christ. I've really learned that you have to first get to know WHO He is before you can begin to become like Him. How can we imitate someone who we don't know? In finding who He is and desiring to emulate just that, a change begins to take place in our spirit, rooting out every bad seed of our lives and revealing the deeper sicknesses that could be infecting our spiritual walk.

Once we have found Christ and allowed Him to presently take the reins of our lives, we become consumed by Him. I honestly believe in finding our Creator, we find who we were created to be- the human God designed, desires and destined. We no longer thrive off others or submit to man's opinion. The bad in our lives is extracted bit by bit by the person who knows what truly belongs in our lives and what doesn't. We naturally become Christlike. Beautiful. Desired. Loved. Humbled. Healed. Cherished.

Don't allow insecurity of your self-perception to take over in your life. Take hold of who Christ is and find yourself in Him, understanding who he has created you to be. Let Jesus, not the world, unveil those issues that exist in your life that need to be ailed. My guess is that it probably won't start out with how you appear to others. He will most likely show you the things that need to be fixed first that He sees as most prevalent. God is really good at humbling us. I feel like I get humbled (and humiliated) almost every day. It hurts. I mess up, but I realize that in those moments of my wrongness He has taught me how to become more like Him. I truly believe that the second our concern veers more towards caring about how our Father perceives us and pleasing Him, that it is then the world begins to perceive us for the better.