Living in a Defensive Mode - Have you ever felt like you had to stand up for yourself or like you were constantly being attacked? God doesn't want us to be walked all over and mistreated, but when we think we are responsible for defending our self worth or ego, we are walking in pride and not confidence.
Self-Sustained Worth - I think the reason we go in defensive mode is because we are trying to maintain something we created. Not God, us. Pride is based on a self-sustained perception of our worth. Our value and worth is constantly being attacked, as women especially, because the devil knows he can get to us that way. We try to be "Super Moms" and "Wonder Women" in an effort to prove we are valuable and we count. All of these things are an attempt at sustaining the worth we think we have or we have created for ourselves and is not based on what God thinks of us.
Driven by Certainty - What motivates you? A lot of times we are motivated by the attacks we feel we are under and so our mode is defensive again. When we are motivated by the certainty, steadfastness, sure and firm character of God who created us, we are free from the burden or responsibility of proving our self-worth to others. What they think doesn't really matter anyways. Only God's opinion counts. I think a lot of women struggle with this, including me. There is such an unspoken competition between moms and women and it is destroying us. We compare ourselves to others and our kids to others and that is all driven by the self sustained worth and not by what God thinks of us. We have to choose to not care what others think (easier said than done) and find our drive, our motivation in what God says about us.
Our identity in God can not be taken away - God is protecting our identity in him and no one or nothing can change who we are in Christ, even us. I think we look at who God says we are and look and where we've been and the mess we have made, and think we can change what God thinks. It just isn't true. I have many times in my life read through list upon list about who God says I am. Because I know it is a constant struggle for me. And I still struggle with getting those scriptures, that identity from my head (where I know it to be true) to my soul (where it changes how I carry myself and how I respond to God and others.)
Today I choose (again) to start moving from pride in what I can do or who I am to confidence in who God made me to be. Will you join me?
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