Walk Right In - Warrior Mom Wisdom - Week of March 25

Walk Right In

Some hair-cutting shops have signs that read, “Walk-ins welcome.” This reminds me of something God recently put on my heart. We often have perceptions of ourselves based on experiences from our childhoods. In the last chapter, I spoke of how I got my feelings hurt easily because I always thought people drank because I was not a “good enough” kid. This type of thinking translated into my adult life by me thinking that people’s comments and/or behaviors were somehow related to what I did or did not do. Additionally, it is easy to feel devalued as adults because we did not feel valued as children. For example, I always felt like the “poor kid” as a child. As an adult, I’ve worked very hard to not be “poor,” but as I’ve earned degrees, and had some successes, deep down I’ve still felt like the “poor kid.” I’m in a doctorate program in clinical psychology, but often times I have found myself comparing myself to other people in the program as if I were still the poor kid in the class. Why is this? It’s very hard to break away from old mindsets. We can be surrounded by adults who deep down feel like the “nerdy kid, the ugly girl, the over-weight kid, the not so intelligent kid, the insecure class-clown kid, the not loved by their parents kid, or the drop-out – just to name a few. We can attend class reunions 15, 20, or 30 years later only to find that people may have aged on the outside, but they have carried the same mindsets and the same characteristics that we remember from high school, ourselves included.

Recently God impressed upon me that I must shed old mindsets if I am to walk into all He has for me. He wants me to walk and talk through the authority of Jesus Christ. I am reminded of the physician, Luke, who wrote the book of Acts and who traveled with Paul.

“Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.- Acts 4:29-31

I am also reminded of Moses who was nervous about having speaking to Pharaoh:

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

Then the Lord said, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has appeared to you.”- Exodus 4:1-5

Moses continued to question God, and God continued to give him tools that would help him prove himself. I find it interesting, but not surprising that Moses was fearful of what God was showing him as well as what God was asking Moses to do. Moses was fearful of the power that God was giving to him. He ran from the snake. Thankfully, Moses was obedient and he picked the snake up by the tail, and the snake became a staff again. I am reminded that when God allows a situation to come my way, rather than turning and running in fear, He wants me to turn and face it in faith, knowing that with His power, I can pick it up by its tail!

Even after all that God showed him, I love how Moses continues to question Him. It just reminds me that Moses was human like us.

Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow to speech and tongue.”

The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes the deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”- Exodus 4:10-13

The Lord became angry with Moses, but God provided his brother, Aaron, to speak and help Moses. God’s grace and mercy continually overflows; Thank God!

In thinking about what God impressed upon me – about walking into all He has for me, and in reading about Moses, I was reminded that I am to be bold in Christ. I am to speak with the authority of the Kingdom; there is an unlimited supply of strength there. It is only when I start thinking in the limited power of Kristina that I become frozen in my tracks and likely to fail. As a result, I started thinking about who I am in Christ rather than where I came from, or who I wasn’t. After about five minutes of thinking about my inheritance in God’s family, I was standing taller, I felt lighter, stronger, and more able than I ever have. All of a sudden, I realized that I was beautiful within, strong through Christ, and capable of all that God had for me. I felt more confident, less scared, more valued, and it hit me: I am not who I was! I need to live as the person God created me to be, free from old mindsets. I am not the “poor kid” anymore. God wants me to look up to Him rather than down on myself. He wants me to step into the land and territory He has for me. He desires for me to experience success and victory, but I must let go of old failures, and stale mindsets in order to do so. Additionally, I must break free from who my parents were or weren’t. I think it’s human nature to ride on the coat-tails of our parents’ successes or drown ourselves in their defeats – as if they were ours to claim. They aren’t. Phew! What a relief to realize that I am not who I was, and I am not who my parents were. I am a child, a daughter of the Most High King.

So, from now on, I am going to wake each day and approach the throne with confidence.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.- Hebrews 4:14-16

God wants us to know that He is accessible through His Son. If we have His Son within us, we can walk right in to all He has for us. There truly is freedom and power in Jesus Christ!

I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.- Psalm 119:45

WMU!

Love,
Kristina

The Warrior Mom Ministry was founded by Kristina Seymour, author of The Warrior Mom Handbook – Equipping Women through the Word, a Bible study for moms who desire to live by faith in the midst of their everyday lives. Kristina has learned that moms can't survive on caffeine and animal crackers alone; women in the Word and in community are united and able to stand firm. To learn more about The Warrior Mom Handbook, the Warrior Mom Ministry, and to sign up for daily encouragement, visit, www.warriormoms.net.