Sitting here this morning, with the radio playing in the background as I surfed the Internet this guy ask this question. “Are you an approval junkie?” My mind went back to yesterday, something was going on as I was doing my shopping going into places I go each day seeing people I face most days, grocery clerks, post office, gas station I felt they were acting different toward me like I was invisible and not giving me the “attention” I was “needing”…and I got my feelings hurt! I felt like a little child wanting to take my ball and go home. Oh poor me!!!
I got home letting those events become my dominant thoughts, reviewing each encounter even becoming a bit upset at how they acted toward me. The whole day I let it control my thoughts, not even being aware until I had gone to bed. I started reviewing my day going over in my mind the events that had taken place. I was shocked at what I had allowed, but it was not until the next morning I got some Truth revealed to me….
Isn’t it neat how Holy Spirit can arrest those feelings and thoughts and get us back in line with the Truth! Well I was just minding my own business sitting here when He spoke to me in His small voice saying, “what about those feelings you had yesterday when you were going around those people…they were lies, coming in from your flesh. You allowed past programming to dictate your reactions as you were trying to get their approval.” Here is the Truth “You were working yourself up in the sin of self pity thinking you needed their approval and you don’t have to have that you already have approval from the One who gave His life giving you the Great Approval!”
My attention was stopped in its tracks when I heard this radio speaker say…. *" Reading in Luke 5, beginning with verse 15 "Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus." Then the Bible describes some extraordinary measures they had to employ to accomplish their mission, but they did get their paralyzed friend to Jesus. The story continues: "He said to the paralyzed man, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.'" Can you imagine this? That mat has supported this man his whole life. It's been used to carry him where he couldn't walk himself. Suddenly, Jesus is telling him to get up and carry what's been carrying him all these years!
Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God." I could just imagine this man shouting, "I've needed this thing my whole life, but I don't need it anymore!" That is the kind of freedom Jesus wants to bring to you; freedom from always needing a man or a woman to make you feel valued and secure. Think of how they've let you down, freedom from being an approval junkie, from seeing yourself as a victim all the time, from trying to find your worth in your work or your performance, freedom from the bottle, the drug, the sex, or the applause that you thought you needed to complete you. They never have; they never will.
Then along comes Jesus, the Man who loves you enough to die to pay for the sin that keeps you from God; who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave. The Bible says of Jesus, "You are complete in Him" (Colossians 2:10) and only in Him, because the Bible tells us you were "...created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Every other thing you've leaned on for love and significance and completeness is an unfulfilling substitute for the real thing - for Jesus.
Well my heart again got in line with the Truth and as I have said before “your eyes and ears will lie to you”. I can’t wait to go out tomorrow with my mind being renewed with this Truth. As I see these people again it will be different. You know what? It want be “all about me” it will be “all about Him” and what He wants to do through me for them being “light and salt” as I walk in the Spirit and not after the Flesh, Oh what Freedom!
*Note: words taken from Saying Goodbye to What's Been Holding You Back - #6120
A Word With You - Your Personal Power
Friday, June 25, 2010
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