Insecurity
In and of itself, nothing is perfect. Not even you. Not even me.
today, I feel pretty
…imperfect.
today, I feel pretty
…emotional.
today, I feel pretty
…restless.
today, I feel pretty
…insecure.
I’ve had this topic on my mind for some time now. I can’t always assess which days will be highs or which days will be lows. I had high hopes for today but found myself lingering in bed with tears rolling from my eyes.
We try to cover insecurity with concealer. But a soul issue isn’t cured by a $30 product. AND, insecurity isn’t always appearance based anyways. Insecurity wears many masks in life’s masquerade: self-doubt, anxiety, cynicism, inconsistency, pessimism. The one thing they all have in common is that they’re all absorbed in self. It’s a hyper focus on shortcomings and vulnerabilities—things done to ourselves and done by others.
Insecurity creeps around when the voice we give way to is untrue. Whether it’s the opinions of others or the comparison lies in our own heads, the voice is not embedded in the honesty of what God declares over us. God put thought and intention into the details of who we are. Those details are perfect.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
— Psalm 139:13-14 NLT
Insecurity also stems from a place of feeling like people disappoint but we won’t disappoint ourselves. Self-preservation. It’s the burden of wanting to do everything and be everything, even long after our capabilities end. The reality is that we can only do and be so much on our own.
In an unsuccessful attempt to cover the void of insecurity, I tend to keep myself busy. The busier I am, the less time I have. Busyness can delay healing. I believe confidence is established in the quiet, still moments. Without that, insecurity will always be present, it will always be tormenting.
Confidence requires time. Taking time to approach God and then approach ourselves changes the undertone of our souls. Instead of concealing our emotions, we find the courage to stop pretending. The moment we get real with God, He gets real with healing us. We don’t have to lie about what we’re feeling or going through. Jesus can still our hearts and minds the way He stilled the rain and waves.
Right in the center of the stillness, we can irrefutably see who we are and why we are so beautiful to our Creator. We go from insecure to secure. Suddenly, we are secure in the Secure One. And then we can stack confidence on that security, because His “workmanship is marvelous.”
Insecure to Secure Exercises
Name one specific thing you can rely on God more for security
Where in the day can you take 10 minutes to be still for God’s healing?
Go three days or a week without makeup and remind yourself you are more than what you look like
Acknowledge daily that perfection only comes from Jesus, the one who is perfect 24/7
Lay off the photo filters and photo editing features
Write down five truths about who you are according to God
What’s one area in life you can relinquish obsession of self?
Define self-assurance in your own words
Ask for help if you feel overwhelmed with tasks and/or responsibilities
Redirect one insecurity you have that’s wrapped up in someone else and point it to Jesus
5 Verse Study
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
Psalm 139:13-18 NLT
You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the Lord is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.
Proverbs 3:25-26 NLT
Fear of the Lord leads to life, bringing security and protection from harm.
Proverbs 19:3 NLT
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him.
Romans 8:5-9a MSG
The one thing I ask of the Lord— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.
Psalm 27:4 NLT