I had bible study at Amy's last night and we discussed self confidence and self esteem.
And again i am truly amazed at what God can reveal to me and how there is ALWAYS something new that he is eager to show me.
To be honest, ive always had a huge fear of pride.
Theres verse after verse in the bible talking about how God will pull the prideful and haughty from their high positions and make them low. (Isaiah 2:9-19 is a great and God fearing passage on this!)
And knowing how much God despises the prideful, and knowing how easily i become prideful- scares me.
Because ive never really been able to figure out the line between having confidence and having pride.
But last night really showed me something new..and its even a concept ive heard before, but God showed me a personal revelation on it! (and until we receive that revelation, information will only be information..nothing more)
So I realized, self confidence is absolutely one of the WORST concepts we have planted into our minds.
We are all nothing. absolutely nothing.
(i know..ouch Kasey..)
but this is so true. WE ARE NOTHING. we are evil and wicked. our flesh desires what is not from God.
So now let me ask you...why in the world would we EVER SAY TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN THAT?!
When we tell people to have self confidence, we are telling them to put confidence in their own broken self. No wonder so many people have problems with depression and addictions. They are attempting to put their confidence in NOTHING.
Ive been told that im good. Im always picked as the "good little church girl" on those stupid facebook surveys. Im called good looking two shoes. etc.
Which dont get me wrong, im happy that people see that in me!
But what they dont realize is that my heart is junk.
Now if i compare it to others, i might be able to say my heart doesnt look to dirty! BUT were not called to compare ourselves to others. 2 Cor 10:12 says people who compare themselves with others are without wisdom. i basically read that as Paul calling them stupid..haha.
But were called to compare ourselves to Jesus. And i guarantee that when my heart is placed next to his, it looks like junk. its dirt.
So I am NOT good. I am NOTHING.
And when we try to prove being good, we are trying to show ourselves as worthy. (worthy= what we deserve..and what we deserve is Hell. ah!!) And trying to show ourselves worthy means we try to create our own righteousness, not His. We dont create our own righteousness. GOD GIVES IT TO US.
Paul quotes Jesus in 2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"
basically thats saying until we accept our weaknesses, he cant display his power!
The greatest blessing spiritually is having nothing. Being nothing. Because it allows us to be filled with his POWER. and his RIGHTEOUSNESS.
and we cant be filled unless we are empty.
Now i dont know if i explained this well enough or not...but i encourage you to read Romans. Because it discusses this a lot. And when realizing that we are nothing, and that everything righteous in us is from God, then that book makes a lot more sense!
I also encourage you to read 2 Cor 10-12.
Im excited to be able to start living out the realization that I am nothing. Because being nothing means i can allow him to be everything.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The good taking over the GREAT.
Every time i think that im going good, Holy Spirit tends to show me something else that i really could work on/ was comprehending and doing and then easily drifted back from.
He's never giving me a break...and im loving it :)
My family is up in northern Minnesota right now at a fishing resort for vacation. From the start i havent been able to shake the thoughts about how i feel like im wasting a week. In complete comfort and relaxation. When we could be spending our time and resources for the kingdom instead. Which sounds kinda crazy. Especially because never have i felt like this for the past 6 or 7 years weve come to this resort. But i guess thats what happens when we change our mindset to one of a radical God.
So I was sitting by the pool just a few mins ago reading a book called "Jesus Culture" by Banning Liebscher. And around me are a bunch of crazy children screaming and being selfish about who gets to use the goggles. And to my right was a group of adults with a bunch of beer and foul mouths. And i kept thinking about how i had to do something. (And dont get too excited..this isnt a blog about overcoming a fear story) But i kept thinking about what I, ME, had to do. Maybe i should go play with the kids. Or maybe i could just walk up to the crazy, obnoxious drunks and ask them if they know Jesus.
Instead though, the Holy Spirit decided to simply show me something else.
All of a sudden i read in my book a story about a revivalist named Kathryn Kuhlman.
And it stated: "Kuhlman was a woman who adored the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit loved to hang out with her because she was a friend of God."
Wow.
Now ived discussed before the revelation that really hit me about how we are called to be a friend to God. That he is longing for a relationship from us. not a one way relationship where we take, we ask, we receive, we complain, we ask again, etc. But one where we sit and are his friend. we sit and ask him what He is thinking. What he is wanting. To be a friend to him along with him being a friend to us.
And when i read that in the book, it simply clicked to me. The importance isnt for me to figure out what I have to do. But instead just to be his friend, and what i do will overflow from that. (Because if the HS loved to hang out with you...there is no way that nothing would overflow from that!! :) )
Sounds simple enough. But Ive found that sometimes the simplest things tend to be the most difficult to really execute.
Way too often i get thinking that i need to do this, or do that. Which im not saying is a bad thing! It would had been awesome if i had went and played with the little kids in the pool or talked to the loud people sitting near me.
But the KEY is- we cant let the good things over take the GREAT things.
Did you catch that?
The good things would be to interact with the little kids who seemed like they probably dont have great role models in their life. Or it would be a good thing to witness to the drunks! Those are good things!!
But the GREAT things are to love and know our GOD.
we cant allow our passion to do good to ever over take our desire, and actually our NEED to have the great.
And im completely confident that when we have the GREAT things in our life, the good will always quickly follow.
Now its not an excuse for me to not do the good things. Because to be honest, i dont really enjoy playing with bratty kids. And the idea of actually physically getting up and taking a few steps over to a bunch of obnoxious adults and asking them if they knew Jesus, scared me.
But i also began to realize that if i really had a REAL and LEGIT relationship and friendship built with God, the God who created freaking EVERYTHING, and he asked me to go play with kids or go talk to some strangers, i would do it in a heartbeat. For our God? why would i even dare think about not?!
Because i havent yet established the GREAT things before i attempt to do the good.
He's never giving me a break...and im loving it :)
My family is up in northern Minnesota right now at a fishing resort for vacation. From the start i havent been able to shake the thoughts about how i feel like im wasting a week. In complete comfort and relaxation. When we could be spending our time and resources for the kingdom instead. Which sounds kinda crazy. Especially because never have i felt like this for the past 6 or 7 years weve come to this resort. But i guess thats what happens when we change our mindset to one of a radical God.
So I was sitting by the pool just a few mins ago reading a book called "Jesus Culture" by Banning Liebscher. And around me are a bunch of crazy children screaming and being selfish about who gets to use the goggles. And to my right was a group of adults with a bunch of beer and foul mouths. And i kept thinking about how i had to do something. (And dont get too excited..this isnt a blog about overcoming a fear story) But i kept thinking about what I, ME, had to do. Maybe i should go play with the kids. Or maybe i could just walk up to the crazy, obnoxious drunks and ask them if they know Jesus.
Instead though, the Holy Spirit decided to simply show me something else.
All of a sudden i read in my book a story about a revivalist named Kathryn Kuhlman.
And it stated: "Kuhlman was a woman who adored the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit loved to hang out with her because she was a friend of God."
Wow.
Now ived discussed before the revelation that really hit me about how we are called to be a friend to God. That he is longing for a relationship from us. not a one way relationship where we take, we ask, we receive, we complain, we ask again, etc. But one where we sit and are his friend. we sit and ask him what He is thinking. What he is wanting. To be a friend to him along with him being a friend to us.
And when i read that in the book, it simply clicked to me. The importance isnt for me to figure out what I have to do. But instead just to be his friend, and what i do will overflow from that. (Because if the HS loved to hang out with you...there is no way that nothing would overflow from that!! :) )
Sounds simple enough. But Ive found that sometimes the simplest things tend to be the most difficult to really execute.
Way too often i get thinking that i need to do this, or do that. Which im not saying is a bad thing! It would had been awesome if i had went and played with the little kids in the pool or talked to the loud people sitting near me.
But the KEY is- we cant let the good things over take the GREAT things.
Did you catch that?
The good things would be to interact with the little kids who seemed like they probably dont have great role models in their life. Or it would be a good thing to witness to the drunks! Those are good things!!
But the GREAT things are to love and know our GOD.
we cant allow our passion to do good to ever over take our desire, and actually our NEED to have the great.
And im completely confident that when we have the GREAT things in our life, the good will always quickly follow.
Now its not an excuse for me to not do the good things. Because to be honest, i dont really enjoy playing with bratty kids. And the idea of actually physically getting up and taking a few steps over to a bunch of obnoxious adults and asking them if they knew Jesus, scared me.
But i also began to realize that if i really had a REAL and LEGIT relationship and friendship built with God, the God who created freaking EVERYTHING, and he asked me to go play with kids or go talk to some strangers, i would do it in a heartbeat. For our God? why would i even dare think about not?!
Because i havent yet established the GREAT things before i attempt to do the good.
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