Hostage

Hi everyone..sorry for not having written anything on Thursday, the trust is I hadn’t managed my time properly so got caught up with other things (but I’m sure you have forgiven me…lol)

This morning I listened to a message that I downloaded from the net that I would love to share with you and goes hand in hand with what we have been speaking about in regards to valuing ourselves, investing in ourselves and knowing who are. What really caught my attention regarding this message is how we can become ‘HOSTAGE’ to our problem. Here are a few examples:

Hostage of insecurity

Hostage of shyness

Hostage of the opinions of others

Hostage of our past

Hostage of a complex

Hostage of a grudge or bad feeling

Hostage of anger

This is just to mention a few. From what I read being held hostage is a person  that is under the control of something else that has dominated them so that they may do the will or fulfil the desires of the one who has held them hostage – in order to be free  there’s a ransom (price) to be paid…really interesting ( on my next post I speak about this ‘PRICE TO BE PAID’ – For your FREEDOM). So before you listen to the message below (and I hope you are able to get something out of it for yourself), read what Jesus – OUR RESCUER said - after all I’m certain no one wants to remain a HOSTAGE to anything or anyone:

2 Timothy 2:26 -  ‘’ Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants’’

The Approval of Men versus the Approval God

So normally I’m supposed to post every Thursday, but I couldn’t keep this until then…heheheh

In last week Thursdays post I mentioned that I would speak about how I would stress myself so hard to prove the opinions of other people wrong. When I look back I can sincerely say that I was driven by wanting to have peoples approval I wanted to ‘fit in’ to be accepted by those who didn’t necessarily like me for some odd reason or another. I would seek to dress, speak or act like them in the hope that they would notice me & when they didn’t notice me that shattered me internally. If you noticed I mentioned how it hit me hard internally, WHY? Because that was where my problem was and the way I was going about fixing it was to look to please others by changing the EXTERNAL while the INTERNAL SUFFERED. I wanted to justify my insecurities by justifying them through those who were around me (those who shared negative opinions about me), it’s as if my way of fighting back my complexes was to fight back those who spoke bad of me or judged me out of a lack of understanding, so much wasted emotional energy , the truth is you are fighting against the ‘Man In the Mirror’ – which is YOURSELF. I was thinking the other day that INSECURITY means a lack of SECURITY in WHO YOU ARE, it’s when you don’t see yourself as being enough – mainly being good enough for others, but the thing one does not recognise when they are INSECURE  is that their VALUE does not decrease based on the opinions of what others say or don’t say about them but they get so consumed in having to ‘prove themselves’ to others.

I can say that some of the hardest battles to overcome are not those that you see, but are those battles that are WITHIN YOU. Primarily because no one knows the depth of then except you. A lot of times I would look for something to mask our internal issues, after all it seems as long as not one sees them it can’t be all that bad right???...WRONG

In my next post (this coming Thursday) I will speak about how INTERNAL issue can materialise themselves EXTERNALLY…and it does get bad, in the meantime read the following:

Jesus is the epitome of CONFIDENCE, Someone who never seeked the approval of men, after all He did say…’’Your APPROVAL means nothing to me’’ John 5:41 (NLT)

Need I say more.

Unfortunately some still ….’’ loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God’’ John 12:43 (NASB)

"Who do you say I am...."

The journey of knowing who you are is not an easy one....why do I say so? Well because a lot of times you will be faced with obstacles were ‘people opinions’ will try to take charge and in a way try to invade your mind to define who you are. So why do I consider these invasions as ‘people opinions’?, simply because I have come to learn that what people may say or may think of me is NEVER a FACT purely because they don’t know me, this may sound like a cliché, but it’s true. A lot of times what people say is based on many factors (but I’m not here to speak about that maybe on a later post) . So, please don’t get me wrong, I mean there have been situations I have encountered were well meaning people out of wanting the best for me have said ‘or you are this, you are that, I don’t like it when you do this or that….etc.’’ – now I don’t take that personally purely because I am fully aware of that persons intentions – that they are good. So I listen & evaluate myself and work on whatever it may be to change (not to please that person of course).

But I’m not talking about the group of ‘well-wishers & good –intentions’’ but I speak of those whose ulterior motive is to put you down, to make you ‘feel’ less of yourself, to tear you down. I have had my share of these people, I don’t resent them (NOT AT ALL) but I have learnt that if you don’t know who you are…you will most likely be affected by them, at some point I was one who was affected by their ‘opinions’ and I tell you it was one of the biggest challenges to overcome. Out of being naïve I would stress myself just to proof a point to them that I was not what they thought. Living to ‘proof a point’ to people is a waste of time to be honest and next week I will speak more about this in the meantime read the message below. People always had opinions of whom Jesus was, yet that didn’t faze Him, He didn’t live to ‘proof a point to anyone’ because He knew from where His IDENTITY came from..

Matthew 16:13-20 New International Version (NIV)

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven

See you next week Thursday my readers.

Invest in Yourself - its called SELF-LOVE

One of the projects I started about 2 years ago or so was this blog….I love to write it’s one of my hidden talents that I don’t invest much on purely because I don’t make the effort to.

I have learnt that when we don’t invest in ourselves it’s a sign that we don’t value ourselves, I mean think with me - the thing that we invest in the most shows that we value it, whether it be a

relationship, business, friendship whatever it may be, we show its importance to us by investing in it.

So 2015 I decided that I would invest in me & my talents and write more and share some of my experiences with you. For each month I will chose a topic to write about, every Thursday I will post something regarding that topic (my personal commitment) . I’m so excited…see you all soon.