Insecurity in the Valley

One thing I have never been accused of is being insecure of who I THINK I am and what I THINK I can do. Believe it or not, I have even been called over confident and cocky!! Yeah, I know, where do they come up with this stuff? I don't understand it myself.

(Now that you've regained your composure - shall we continue?)

In spite of my confidence in who I am and what I can do, I do know this one thing - it is easy to become insecure in the midst of the valley. What do I mean? Well. . .it has been easy for me to become insecure about God's love for me, insecure about God's promises, insecure about the fact that He wants what's best for me, insecure about His direction for my life. I think you get the picture.

Where do these insecurities come from? Great question. I believe they come from deep inside of us. They are always there, but Satan brings them to the forefront and uses them to distract us from God. . .from the journey. You see, if we become insecure we will begin taking things in our own hands - that puts us in God's place - and we start screwing everything up. Then we're off track, we are out of God's will, we begin to question God, His love, friends, family, in fact there's nothing we won't question - except our insecurities.

I was reminded of this as I read David Nasser's book A Call to Die. He said that when things are more unstable we become more insecure - we're not sure of what's going to happen, we can't see the future, we can't figure things out and we become insecure. Things are never more unstable than when we are in the midst of the valley. It's because we can't always see where the journey will take us. We don't know what's lurking in the shadows of the trees. We can't fathom what's around the next bend.

Rest assured - God is still in control. He's still God. And He's still right.

So how do we get that security back? We confess our insecurities. We confess our fears. We confess our attempts to take God's place. Then we trust in Him - completely and confidently (as hard as this may be right now). Psalms 24:17 says we are to wait on the Lord. We are to be strong and stay with God. That is how we gain our confidence back. I don't think it happens all at once - I guess it could. For some of us valley experiencers I think it takes time. So. . .each day we trust Him a little more, then a little more tomorrow, then a little more the next day. Then, when we least expect it we find ourselves totally immersed in our trust in God. This journey of trust, in and of itself, may be it's own valley experience.

Are you struggling in the midst of your valley? I fully understand. I've been there. I know exactly what you're going through. So do many other valley experiencers. Don't loose heart. Stay with God. Confess your insecurities and fears and allow the Shepherd to guide you through this season of life.

Confidently yours (sort of),
Mike