Battling Insecurity
There is a sneaky form of pride that can creep in and consume us. It has the appearance of humility, but at its source you’ll find a tangle of self-absorption and fear of man that consumes our thoughts and drives our decision making. It takes our focus off of the Lord and puts it on ourselves as we allow our opinion of ourselves to dictate everything we do. Its name is insecurity.
Make no mistake, insecurity is an ugly enemy set on stealing the freedom Jesus bought for us by keeping us bound to self. The peace and joy promised to us in Christ are concealed behind a cloud of self-doubt and uncertainty. It robs us of the joy and encouragement that come from honest friendship with other believers. It reveals a lack of faith as we believe that our faults are greater than our Savoir.
So now that we have exposed and defined our enemy of insecurity, how do we go to war with it?
The first step to battling insecurity is to own our state as the worst of sinners. “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” 1 Timothy 1:15-16. It might sound counterintuitive to meditate on our state as the worst of sinners to free us from insecurity, but when we consider the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us (Hebrews 12:1), we see people who had nothing to boast in of their accomplishments. On the contrary, God has revealed to us the depths of their sin and imperfections that we might see how great and mighty he is. When we try to cover our sin or paint a false, but pretty, picture of ourselves, we are missing the chance to show the world what a great savior we have! When we know that we are the worst of sinners, our focus and boast is turned toward our Savior and away from ourselves.
Remember the woman at the well? She is remarkably insecure. She is living in a state of sin, embarrassed of her lifestyle and does not want to face her neighbors. She goes to the well when nobody will be there. But who does she find there when everyone else has gone? She finds Jesus! Jesus meets her there in her sin, in her shame, where nothing is hidden from his sight. Instead of finding the rejection she so feared, she finds life and saving grace. She is set free from her insecurity as she runs to tell the neighbors she once feared, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did” (John 4:29). What began as her shame becomes her testimony! She no longer tries to hide her sin, knowing the power of forgiveness she wanted to share it with others. These people knew of her immorality, and they believed because she told them of a Savior who knew every sin she every committed and loved her anyway (John 4:39-42).
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. We can say that boldly with Paul, throwing off the insecurity that hinders us as we give glory to God for the depths he has saved us from. Our testimony does not lie in our own perfection, it lies in Christ’s perfection. Our security is not in our own accomplishments, it is in Jesus’ accomplishment on the cross. Let us no longer fear others’ opinion of us above God’s. Let us take our eyes off of ourselves and turn them back on our Savior, having faith in what he has done for us that we may finish our race.
