Turner Chapel

Reduced by Man, but Renewed by God

Vulnerability and low self-esteem usually aren’t words we associate with the life of a Christian. Neither do we associate depression and mental instability with that lifestyle. But truth be told, there are many in our Christian family that suffer with these inner feelings. They are not exhibited at church on Sunday morning while praising God, but Monday through Saturday while having a Pity Party at home. So why do these feelings surface, or re-surface, when we know where our strength lie? Then it hit me, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). This isn’t a revelation, because this is something we already knew. But why does it get to us like that?

We don’t even recognize these things as the spiritual warfare that it is. My sister, the enemy has you thinking you’re nothing unless your man says he loves you, or the man you desire, wants to be with you. My brother, the enemy has you thinking you’re nothing unless you can provide a $225,000 house for you and your family. Or we’re nothing unless we have a BS, an MBA and a PhD. Or we’re nothing because we’re not living it up like the Jones’s. Or we’re nothing because our anointing isn’t like Rev. So and So’s. Or we’re nothing because our prayer didn’t sound like fire, like Evangelist So and So’s.

No, no, no…we cannot allow man’s standards to reduce us, but be renewed by the Word of God. For in Jeremiah 29:11, our Ace Boon Coon tells us that He knows the plans He has for us. In Hebrews 11:6, our Big Daddy in the Sky tells us that without faith, that it’s impossible to please Him. In Malachi 3:10, the Ultimate Banker tells us to test Him and see if He doesn’t throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so many blessings, that we won’t even have room enough to receive them. And sometimes we don’t even understand why we feel what we’re feeling, or dealing with what we’re dealing with; but the Alpha and Omega says in Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails”. So, let us not allow ourselves to be reduced by man, but be renewed by God and the Word of God.

MEDITATION SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 40:31
“but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Your Humble Servant,
Raushanah N. Butler