Are You Feeling Inadequate and Insignificant? What If….
I’ve dreamt of being a published author since I learned the English language with my fellow 5-year-old classmates during our afternoon English-as-a-Second-Language co-hort. Growing into a young woman, I read words strung together telling stories of defeat and hope, love and sorrow, battling and overcoming obstacles, with each bringing excitement, life, and inspiration to my world. I wanted to create stories too. Yet, fear smacked me sideways, and before I even got started, shoved me in a dark corner, leaving me biting my nails raw from overwhelming feelings of insecurity, anxiety, inadequacy, and insignificance.
My college English professor told me, “you’re not good enough.” Social media told me, “you don’t have the followers or audience.” My parents told me, “a writing career path doesn’t provide a sustainable income.” As a result, I believed the lie that the words in my potential stories had no worth, value, or purpose. If someone else is doing it well, I can’t do it too, or add to the “thing” that has already been said, written, and created. They are already recognized and loved. Their words are so powerful, I can’t say it quite like them. They already have influence, who will ever take notice enough for me to make a difference? I simply can’t do it.
Fear paralyzes. Insecurity silences.
It stops us from being able to do anything, hijacks our thoughts, and shreds our self-esteem, ultimately squashing our purpose from coming to life. And if we’re not careful, it can traumatize us from ever moving forward.
Somewhere along the way I talked myself out of anything great God had positioned me to do. The enemy did his best to stop me from getting up, scraping off fear, judgement, self-pity and lies, and walking out what I was made to do. In between a dream and reality, I felt trapped and believed that reality wouldn’t give the time of day for another dream to come to life. It tried to take me out.
Maybe that’s you today, too. Perhaps it’s because you feel miserably inadequate or lack resources. Perhaps you’re intimidated and entertain thoughts of being completely insignificant. Perhaps you feel you’re simply unqualified or undeserving.
In the quietest places of our hearts we’ve doubted and questioned God’s ability to use us. Maybe we’ve even doubted His capacity altogether. In 1 Chronicles 28, Solomon, as a young man, is given the daunting and seemingly difficult task to build the temple – the very place of God’s presence. To uplift and encourage in this moment, King David confidently speaks into his son’s life:
“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God {and your God}, is with you. He won’t leave you or abandon you until all the work for the service of the Lord’s house is finished” (1 Chronicles 28:20).
God is saying and speaking the same to you today!
What if He wants to choose you to do something great? Are you willing?
What if you believed that God created you to be a difference maker?
What if God could use you to do something extraordinary even if the fear doesn’t completely go away? You do it scared if you have to, though know that you will never be abandoned.
God said: I am sending YOU. Because I need YOU. You’re it. Go for it, girl.
No one can do it quite like you.
Reflection
1. What is keeping you from moving forward with pursuing your purpose? Write down the emotions, positive and negative, you experience when thinking about your purpose and dreams.
2. What have you allowed to define you, pushing you away from believing that God created you to be a difference maker – the moments in your life, family, community, relationships, workplace, etc.?
3. Take some time to journal what you want the rest of the year to look like.
Goal Setting & Sharing
Now that you wrote out how you envision the last few months of 2019, what are three goals you plan to implement, starting today, to help you move towards pursuing your purpose and vision?
And David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God is with you. He won’t leave you or abandon you until all the work for the service of the Lord’s house is finished.” (1 Chronicles 28:20 CBS)
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As Created Women, we believe we are called to create for the good of others so if that’s you, you’ve come to the right place.
We love helping women discover their God-sized dreams, live out their purpose and run their race well with endurance.
Here, you will hear stories from all kinds of women who on a journey of walking out their purpose one dream step at a time in spite of their fear, failures and past.