A Little Action Goes a Long Way
It is that time of year again, getting together expense
reports, mileage reports turning in the 1099s and W2s. Cort has been inundated
with work at his company trying to get all his clients prepared for their
taxes. I volunteered to handle our taxes this year. Finally, I convinced Cort I
could do it. This was my first actual year to do the taxes completely by
myself. The funny thing is now I
understand what he was trying to protect me from. Let’s just say if your man
does the taxes like Cort does for us. You need to give him some kind of “I
really appreciate the hard work kudos” because that stuff is for the birds.
After countless hours of going through receipts, bank
statements and calendars I felt as if I had conquered Mt Everest. But it was not until I began to use the shredder
this morning that something was spoken to my heart.
So many times in life we are handed tasks that we feel
overwhelmed and not competent to complete.
I am a perfectionist when it comes to completing a task maybe in a
different way than most perfectionists but never less a perfectionist. Anytime,
I begin a task I want to make sure that I get it done, fast, to a high standard
of excellence and please those people I am doing it for. When I feel as if I did not meet that standard
I get extremely mad at myself for letting people down and I begin to deal with
the “insecurities” that plague me, and turn my frustration on them through anger. Because my goal is always to knock it out of
the park. Everything I laid out is the cycle of insecurities I deal with. We all deal with insecurities on some level. If we were to say we don’t
we would be lying, and as the saying goes, "If your lying your dying!"
So what are
insecurities? I once heard insecurities defined
as being in your own personal crazy ward. I would have to agree with that. Your
mind plays tricks on you. Begins to go at you like you are going at war with yourself. Telling you how you don't measure up. He is mad at me. What did I do? Why are they mad? You know the common questions/answers you play silently in your head. We begin to allow our thoughts to tear us down and beat our self up. This is what I call classic Insecurities. We feel real heavy in our mind yet not for sure why.
The bible speaks plain as day about Satan is the “accuser”. His job is to try and get you and I hung up however.
I am convinced that he has three major attacks he launches at humans. One of my favorite things to do is cuddle on the sofa with Cort and watch a good action pack
movie, but the one thing that always happens is the “good guys” have to figure
out what the “bad guys” are doing, and then Go to work.
So
that is exactly what we are going to do. Let’s take a moment together and
expose Satan’s attack plans. We know we are not battling against flesh and blood. So that let's us know we are in a spiritual battle. So let's take a moment and inventory some of the ways that Satan attacks us. I am going to list 3 I have watched played out in my life and others.
1. Get you to believe there is no God.
Once he can convenience you there is no God. His work is
done and he leaves you to your own destruction.
2. Get you
to “know of God” but not “KNOW HIM”
I have personally walked this one out. I
grew up in church and so I knew the right things to say and do because "I knew
of God". This is very dangerous because the pride in my life was leading me down
a path of I am ok. I can do both what I want and I will be fine because I know the right
things. I am sad to report nothing is farther from the truth. I was living out what Timothy warned us of. I was
allowing my selfishness and Self-center ness to rule my decisions and
choices. I knew the right things to do. I knew I had no business going where I
was going and what I was doing. But kept telling myself because I knew the word, I would be ok. I knew it was wrong but I was having a hard
time making my mind and heart line up because my flesh was stronger. I am convinced, not just because of my
circumstances but because of watching others dear to me walk down that same
paths of destruction. If we were in our bible’s every day, praying and truly seeking God. That small faint
voice, I heard telling me to get out would have been more like an ambulance warning
me. It is not until we begin to put him
in our everyday life and have a regular routine that we get to KNOW HIM.
3. Get you to crumble why you are in a growing
phase. By attacking your identity and mind.
Oh and the most classic of classic attack we read about countless times in the word. He tries to take us out while we are
growing. Joseph and Job are just two examples of this. Why is that do you think? Paul tells us that we should count our
trails as joy. I know it is because those trails produce faith. Faith is the essences of our belief. Think about
what Jesus said to those he touched to heal. His classic phrases, “Your Faith
healed You” So if Satan can knock our faith and get us focused on our
circumstances instead of our Promise he can knock us every time.
Now, I don’t know about you ladies I have
heard this stuff multiple times but it was not until I was at the shredder did
I get that I am ready to take the attack I have going on in my life and begin
to not allow the insecurities and attack plans of the enemy to rule my mind. I am ready to have my own little movie of "Independence Day" and take out the bad guy better known as Satan. We have to remind ourselves and do as Joseph and Job did Hold to the promises. So that is what I am going to do. I will hold to a promise that God gave me back in 2007. It took David 14 years of hiding in caves for
his life as a man whom he felt was like a daddy to him tried to kill him. I
believe that Satan attacks us the same as he did David. Yet David is known as a man after God's own heart. David claimed his promises and Praised through the storm. Did insecurities plague David. You bet your bottom dollar they did. But He allowed his head knowledge to penetrate his heart and stood his ground.
So my two cents of the day: Do not let GO
of your promises. Do not let Go of your Lord and don’t just know of Him. Get to
Know your Jesus. When the insecurities plague you know this. If you are not fighting
them. You are doing them or you are them. You are worth the fight. No matter
how long it takes for that promise to be fulfilled God does keep his Promises.
Love you Girls!
Tiffany
