Have you ever been lied to? I have. But perhaps not in the way you might think.

Those lies can “color” how we view and interact with the world going forward.

Being a VERY petite woman, I have battled with insecurity for a good portion of my life.  The enemy used what made me feel different, made me feel insecure, to feed me a bunch of lies.

The Lies We Believe

During lunch with a friend who is tall and beautiful, I admitted that I appreciated being out with her, and assured her that the good table we were led to was thanks to her. Puzzled, she looked at me, nonverbally asking, “Why?” I explained that my entire life, I almost always was given the worst table in the restaurant…you know the kind: near the restroom or closest to the kitchen or table bussing station. Research has suggested that shorter people tend to be discriminated against compared to their taller counterparts, just as overweight individuals tend to be discriminated against compared to their thinner counterparts.

At some point in my life, the enemy began feeding me lies about my insecurities. Only I didn’t know they were lies at the time and I began to believe them.

 

The lies I believed because of my insecurities:

  • You aren’t valued as much as others.
  • People don’t take you seriously because of your height.
  • You won’t be respected because of your petite stature.

 

How thankful I was when I began to understand the truth about my worth, value and identity:

 

I chuckled as I read of someone else who probably fell prey to the same lies I had, but who had an encounter that changed his life and taught him truth.

An encounter with Jesus can change everything.

In Luke 19:1-10 we are told the story of Zacchaeus meeting Jesus. Zacchaeus was reportedly a man of very small stature. When Jesus travelled through his town, Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but because of his short stature was unable to see Him. So as the story goes, Zacchaeus ran up ahead of Jesus and climbed up in a tree to allow him to see over the crowd.

As Jesus passed by, he spotted the short-statured tax collector perched in the tree. Jesus called to Zacchaeus and told him to come down from the tree because Jesus wanted to go to his house and spend time with him. Jesus recognized Zacchaeus’s heart to seek Him out, and his efforts to see him. Jesus honored that, and despite what others may have said as they initially trampled on the short-statured man, Jesus found him worthy of his love, time and attention.

It is easy to put myself in Zacchaeus’s shoes.
I wonder if he felt devalued by those who trampled all around him.
I wonder if others tried to take advantage of him.
I wonder if he became frustrated by his futile attempts to see Jesus through the crowd before he took desperate measures to get prime seating.

Out of the entire crowd who gathered to see Jesus, Zacchaeus was the man Jesus chose to seek out and get to know. I wonder if Jesus’ attention toward him helped him see the potential lies he had been believing about himself and his worth and value?

What lies have you been believing about yourself that don’t line up with God’s truth?

 

 

Rx for When You Feel Insecure

Rx for When You Feel Insecure

 

 

The enemy uses what makes us feel different and insecure to feed us a bunch of lies about our worth, our value and our identity. But, an encounter with Jesus can change all that and help you understand the truth.

 

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