Day 24: Digging Deep

Note:  This is the 2nd publishing of this post.  The first one got away from me before I proof-read.  Ooops!

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Do you let doubt rise up inside of you?  Does it make you feel like God can't use you because of your "short-comings?"

Chapter 5 in A Confident Heart by Renee Swope has been a real doosey this past week.  God has been using Renee's book to dig around in the deep recesses of my heart and pull things out that I had buried deep many years ago.  I'm not going to go into all the gory details, but let's just say that I have spent a lot of my time in prayer, in tears, and in conversation with a dear friend.  It has been good, though.  Lots of breakthroughs!

1.    "...damaged emotions and insecurities from our past have a powerful influence over how we see ourselves today."  (A Confident Heart, pg. 89)
This specific statement really took hold of things deep in my heart.  I hadn't ever looked at it that way.  The way that I look at myself now has been influenced by negative things in my past.

Don't you just love it when God speaks directly to you?  I felt this statement was God showing me the "why." Why did I get down on myself so much and why couldn't I function like I knew I should?  I was letting my emotions and insecurities from my past have TOO MUCH influence in me now.

2.  I need to focus on God's power in my life--not myself.

What happened when Peter took his eyes off Jesus when he was walking on the water?  The waves got big and the storm got fierce, yet Peter was walking on the water toward Jesus as long as he kept his eyes on him.  As soon as he took them off, he started to sink.

Keeping my eyes on Jesus is imperative.  It is all I need.  I don't need to worry about other things in my life.

Jesus needs to be our only focus, so that we won't sink.