Have you ever felt like an afterthought? Not really excluded but not really includer either,,, more of a, ‘…oh, we should also invite (you) too.’ Maybe it’s a sense of being a ‘too’. Or maybe you think you’re being taken advantage of? Or perhaps you feel you are invisible (you aren’t) – but you don’t feel valued or of any value – acknowledged. Or any combination of those or ones I hadn’t thought of. Those are really painful feelings. I have to ask… do you do this to others? Sometimes it seems that we are blind to the very thing we dislike that WE do.
When it comes to you… what do you do with those feelings? Stuffing them down won’t work. But… trying to explain them is incredibly difficult. Even if you don’t get to the root of why you feel this way, you can become proactive against the feelings and defeat them! How? Use the Word. Speak to those feelings about who you are and are becoming. If the feelings try and rise up don’t stuff them down because they will return but speak to them by telling them that you may have been (fill in the blank) but that was your old man. You’ve been made a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) and that baggage is not part of who you are.
One time I heard or read – God don’t make junk. Perhaps not the best way to phrase this but you have to admit that there’s little doubt about what it means. Simply… this means that though you may have been a wretch, because you are born again – that doesn’t apply to you any longer. Scripture teaches that we have been wonderfully and fearfully made (Psalms 139:14), that our names are written on the palms of God’s hands (Isaiah 49:16). All that points to the fact that we are not a mistake. That we are in the right place to do what has been prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10). No… we are never an afterthought, we are always intentional.
The only issue is – us. Will we act on and grow in the confidence of Whose we are and Who we are becoming? The alternative – be controlled by those negative feelings. No brainer … yet, it can come up and cripple us when we let it. But why do we believe that we are of no consequence. Probably because that’s what the devil wants us to be. While I have said this countless times, it bears repeating – stop believing his lies! He hates when we reject him and accept the Lord’s gift of life but he gets incredibly vicious in his attempts to stop us from becoming who the Lord has always seen. It seems that the bottom line really is whether we believe the Lord or we believe the liar. Sounds simple and I know it’s not… and yet……. Why live in a handicap position when you can live in abundance? (John 10:10)
[[The final question always comes back to You! How do you know, understand, integrate, apply what is relevant to you and your life?! Does it make any difference to you and who you are and are becoming?]]
