According to a study I’m working though as a result of Training Camp revelations, a stronghold is anything that exalts itself in our minds, pretending to be bigger or more powerful than God. It steals our focus and causes us to feel overpowered, controlled. It consumes so much of our emotional and mental energy that it strangles our abundant life.
Some of my deepest wounds can be found within my greatest stronghold – INSECURITY.
I have allowed the lies of insecurity to be exalted in my mind, to become bigger and more powerful than God’s truths. Insecurity has stolen my focus and caused me to feel overpowered, controlled. Insecurity has wrecked my confidence. I have allowed insecurity to consume so much of my emotional and mental energy that it has strangled my abundant life.
Tonight’s study entry wanted me to stop and imagine what my life would be like if I totally lived within the freedom found in Christ. It asked me to, “Describe your life if God’s peace wrapped around you and protected you…”
I didn’t even finish reading the question before tears started to fall.
If God’s peace wrapped around me and protected me…
– I wouldn’t feel invisible and insignificant (even around those who should know me best)
– I wouldn’t walk into a room and immediately think that everyone in there is more [anything] than me
– I wouldn’t be paralyzed by making decisions that have no clear right or wrong answer nor any major impact on my life in the near future
– I wouldn’t believe that I am less of a person because I am single
– I wouldn’t let events from the past dictate my present/future life
– I wouldn’t immediately assume that every perceived set-back in my day is a direct result of my incompetence
– I wouldn’t avoid making eye contact
– I wouldn’t be afraid to speak up
– I wouldn’t over-analyze conversations long after they were finished
[This list could go on for a while, but you get the idea…]
If God’s peace wrapped around me and protected me, that would mean I am something worth protecting. And if I totally lived within the freedom found in Christ, I would know true peace and freedom.
I sat there for a moment, relishing this truth, and allowed the tears to do their thing.
I don’t expect to live from this place of complete freedom immediately or obtain victory over my stronghold of insecurity overnight, even though it is quite possible with God. My insecurities are rooted deep, but He has provided divine weapons of His Word and His Spirit, so I can demolish this stronghold!
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
Our minds control our actions; we act out what we truly believe. Therefore, I must learn to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ, and I do this by choosing to think Christ’s thoughts instead of my own thoughts that have been influenced by Satan. Every time I begin to think that I am not worthy, that I am not enough, or any of the thoughts in the list above, may I start with and be encouraged by the words of David:
The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1
