Tag Archives: Beth Moore bible study

Face It Head On

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In my last Bible Study series post based on Beth Moore’s study So Long, Insecurity I covered The Magic Method to Overcoming Insecurity. That “magic method” was basically to lean on the strength the Lord gives you as a Christian and work on changing the way your think. When a negative thought comes to mind immediately replace it with a promise of God. This week we will address when Satan uses friends or family members to prey on us and lead us further down a path of negativity and insecurity.

Let’s begin this week with a simple question to make you stop and think. What kind of people do you have around you? How would you characterize your closest friends/family? Are they encouragers? Do you feel uplifted after spending time with them? Or do you find yourself feeling negative – not necessarily about yourself – but just more negative in general? Do you often find that you are expending more energy (positive or negative) on their issues every time you are together so that there seems to be very little support for you and your issues? Does your relationship feel one sided and it’s not really in your favor? Be honest – are you feeling used? Is there a lot of give on your part but you walk away with very little take? Now does that make you feel more secure or less secure? When you are away from that person and really get a chance to think about your relationship with them do you ever get that little nudge that something just feels “off”? Perhaps when you are apart from them you (or your spouse) notices that you seem negative, consumed with worrying about someone else’s problems, not plugged into your life/family, depressed or just “not yourself”.

What does all of that sound like? It sounds like a person who is being controlled by another person. It sounds like your friend/family member is consuming all of your mental and emotional energy so that you have none left for your family. In chapter 13 of So Long Insecurity Beth Moore refers to these people as “emotional predators”. It’s easy to see how an emotional predator could control another person in a marriage. But if you identify with any of the questions in the previous paragraph you can see that it’s also easy to understand how a friend or other family member could easily control us as well. Sometimes it’s possible to be one of the members in this type of relationship without even knowing it. But many times a person with a controlling personality will seek out a “weaker” personality that is easily controlled and will draw them in like a spider to a web. I have been in this type of friendship. This friend was very good at manipulation. So good that it was as if I was a puppet and she was the puppet master. There were so many other unhealthy tentacles in this relationship that we could be here all night if I tried to cover it all. Let’s just say that when the “friendship” ended it did not end well. I paid the price with my heart in a million little pieces and my self esteem shot to smithereens. As I look back now I can see everything so clearly. I can see the game she played. I can see how easily I fell right into her hands. When it all came to light I surrounded myself with POSITIVE people. I buried myself into the Word of God. I refused to let satan win the battle at the hands of a heartless two faced “friend”. I recognized that she was wrong. The things she said about me were wrong. I was a good person. I refused to believe the things she tried to get me to believe about myself.

You see what I did there? I changed my surroundings. I made sure that I filled my mind with the truth. I chose to believe the truth instead of the lie. I chose to find my strength and security in Christ and no longer in a “friendship” based on lies and deceit. I truly found Christ is strong in our weakness as II Corinthians 12 says. I replaced all that negativity with truth and I climbed out of that pit. I am stronger now because of it. I am more secure in certain areas of my life because of my response to that whole experience. I would hate to see where I would be now if I had not clung to the truth. The secret to overcoming insecurity is in how your respond to it. It takes a very concentrated effort to stand up to our insecurity and face it head on and refuse to allow it any more power over you.

The Journey to the River

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Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NLT)

What does that passage tell you about a secure person? I see that their hope and confidence is going to be found in the Lord and that their roots are buried deep in the fresh nourishing earth untouched by the elements. Oh if only we could all be like that all the time. Sometimes I find myself far from the riverbank, far from the source of refreshing water, beaten down by the sun, dry as a bone with little hope and no confidence in anything. When I stop long enough in my life journey to look around me I see faces of others who seem to be in the same position. And honestly if I can even see the river from the dry desert I am wandering in I don’t see many people near the refreshing life giving water. That’s because we are all being affected by the murmurings and lies being fed to us from every direction and in turn making us feel insecure.

No one, man or woman, escapes the trap of insecurity. Because I am leading a women’s Bible study though I will be addressing women here on my blog. Keep in mind though that there are plenty of men who feel inadequate and pressured every day to measure up to some unseen measuring stick that leads them on a path of helpless insecurity as well.

Think about this just for a moment, what makes you feel the most insecure? Is it your looks, your weight, your financial situation, a relationship with a friend, your childhood or your husband. The list could go on and on. I will be honest with you and say that one area (and this is just ONE of them) that I am most insecure in is my physical appearance. I worry that my hair isn’t the right color, that my makeup looks poorly applied, that my stomach isn’t flat enough and that my legs look too fat in my jeans. If it has ANYTHING to do with my physical appearance I can guarantee you that I’m insecure about it. I’m pretty sure that I feel that way because of the TV shows that I watch and the magazines that I look at. All of the women on the shows and in the magazines look perfect and even if they have a few extras pounds on them I still think they look better than me. Now I ask you – why do I give these perfect strangers so much power over me? Why do I let them determine how I feel about myself today, September 20, 2012, in my own life in Nashville Tennessee? They don’t know who I am. They don’t care who I am. So why do I give them that power?

The kind of security we all need doesn’t come from a mirror, a bottle or another person. The kind of security we need can only come from God. What we really need is someone to love us when we are so distraught with disdain for ourselves. We condemn ourselves in our own minds so much that even if we had a positive thought I’m not sure we could hear it among all of the negative talk. We were created to need God to fulfill all of our needs. He hears all of those things we say to ourselves. He sees how much power we let the world have in determining our self-esteem. He knows the degree of the wounds to our spirit. And he is waiting right there – right in front of us – waiting for us to look up and see him and ask for his help. He knows what Satan’s scheme is. He knows how Satan works. But he also knows how to triumph over Satan. Satan is our enemy. Every lie that enters our mind is straight from him. But for every lie of Satan there is a victorious truth waiting in the open hands of Christ. Listen to HIM! Accept HIS truth!

What waits for us is that hope and confidence rooted deep into the refreshing waters Jeremiah wrote about. Join me on the journey to the river! We’ll go together as secure sisters!

Say Goodbye to Insecurity

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As you are reading this I am beginning a new Bible Study at my church, The Donelson Fellowship. It’s based on Beth Moore’s book So Long, Insecurity. The book came out in 2010. I actually preordered it before it was printed. Does that give you any idea where I stand with insecurity in my life? About a year later Lifeway released a Bible Study workbook to accompany the book. And that is the study I am now leading on Thursday mornings at our church.

All of us have some area of our life that we are insecure about. We may keep it well hidden or it may be laying open for all to see. Some of us don’t have to say a word because you can see insecurity written all over our face. Others of us hide our insecurities behind a big personality that fools others into believing we are full of confidence and self assurance.

The world spends a lot of money and a lot of time telling women how they should look, what they should say and what they are doing wrong. It tells us what our hair should look like, what color our complexion should be, what size our waist should be, what the number on the tag in our dress should say, how much money should be in our bank account for us to be worth anything, how many children to have, what age we should get married, what brand purse to carry, what color hair to have, where we should send our children to school and what size house we need to live in by the time we are 30. Those are just a few expectations you might get in one day. There are thousands more that I am not listing. It sounds really sad when you read it, doesn’t it? Have you ever wondered why we fall for that?

In the grand scheme of things none of that matters. Jeremiah 17:7 says “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” That one little sentence sure makes that whole previous paragraph sound silly, doesn’t it? This study is about how to change the focus from that paragraph above to the sentence of Jeremiah 17:7. It’s all about searching for security in the hope and confidence that comes from God instead of the false security the world tries to sell us.

I plan to share bits and pieces of what I learn each week here. I hope that you will come by as we learn together how to say So Long, Insecurity!

Get Out Of That Pit Giveaway

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Do you ever feel like you are so far down that you feel as if you are in a pit? Do you struggle just to reach high enough to get a grip on the edge of the pit so you can try to pull yourself up and drag yourself out? Maybe you feel like you actually LIVE so far under the earth that you can barely see the light of day. Isaiah 42:22 says that a pit is a place where you feel trapped. That’s the perfect way to describe it, isn’t it? You work hard to figure out how to get yourself out of that pit. But the truth is that you cannot get yourself out. Think about it, you are deep down and no matter how much you stretch you cannot reach the edge to get enough of a grip to pull yourself up so you can climb out. You need someone above to grab hold of you and pull you out. The only one who is strong enough and who can reach down far enough to take your hand is God.

Beth Moore has written an amazing book titled Get Out Of That Pit. If you look at my On My Nightstand tab at the top of this page you will see it is one of the books that I cannot recommend enough. It’s as if the book were written just for me. I am a pit dweller. Chances are there are times in your life that you are also a pit dweller. We are probably pit dweller neighbors. But we don’t have to be. We can reach our hand up to God so as he reaches his hand down he can gently pull us up to the top of the earth – back up to the sunshine once again. Back to the warmth of the sun/Son. You can repeat this verse with confidence and victory:

Psalm 40:2 – He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

This amazing book will change your life. I can say that with confidence because it changed mine. I want to help you, my friends and those I love, to have the full benefit of the book. That is why I want to give you a copy.

Next Thursday is Ron’s birthday. So I have decided that I want to give one of YOU a gift for Ron’s birthday. (Don’t worry – he will get a birthday present too! HA) This is all you need to do:

1. Leave me a comment telling me your favorite Beth Moore book/study that you have read/done. If you  haven’t yet read any of her books, take a minute to look here and tell me which one appeals most to you.

2.  Follow me on Twitter (MyKidsSccrMom) and then leave me a SEPARATE comment letting me know that you have done so. If you are already a follower leave me a comment and let me know so I can make sure I am following you too.

3.  RT this Giveaway by copying and tweeting the following and then leave me a comment telling me you have done so.

I entered the #Giveaway at @MyKidsSccrMom’s blog to win Beth Moore’s book Get Out of That Pit http://wp.me/p12X2Y-36Jx

4.  Post the above tweet as your FB status. Since I do not have a FB please leave a comment with the link to your status so I can double check it.

Be sure to leave a different comment for each thing you do. Each comment counts as an entry. So the more comments you have the more entries you have, the more chances you have to win.

The Giveaway will run from today May 5-May 12 at 7:00 p.m. I will use random.org at 7:00 p.m. to choose the winner.