Unstuck.

Last week we talked about how it matters what you think about yourself. Why is this so? Proverbs 23:7 tells us that the way we think in our about ourselves, the way we see ourselves determines who we are, it says, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he.” In case you were wondering why it is important to dismantle the lies of the enemy, this is the reason. The enemy can get us thinking and living on a level much inferior to what God has for us.

How do we know this? Numbers 13:33 says, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” This was the Israelites talking about the people they had seen in the land that God told them they could possess. God said they could have the land, they went and investigated the land and came back saying it could not be done all because of how they were seeing themselves.

They thought they were inferior, less than, not equal to the people in the land they had to possess. God, by telling them they could possess the land, was telling them they were greater than their enemies. They chose to believe that they were inferior. They sided with the lie of the enemy that they are like grasshoppers and the other people saw them that way too.

Truth be told, everyone had heard of how the God of the Israelites had dealt with the Egyptians and Pharaoh. They had heard about how He had parted the Red Sea so His people could walk across on dry ground and caused the water to come back together and drown Pharaoh and his armies. They had heard about how He was guiding His people through the wilderness and protecting them, and they were all scared of the Israelites. Not because the Israelites were so great but because their God was great. If they had trusted God, I wonder what miracles would have been recorded in our Bible.

The way we see ourselves matters. The Israelites had been slaves for years and that’s all they knew. They had it programmed in them that they were less than. You may have it programmed in you that you are less than, not smart enough to take that promotion or apply for that new role or not good looking enough to catch the person of your dreams (ah lower your standards mate, haha JK). Magazines, Instagram, billboards are always trying to tell us we are not skinny enough. But none of that matters when God comes into our lives. With Him on our side, we are more than enough.

The grasshopper thing was a stronghold the enemy had set up in the Israelites minds and they ended up stuck living in the wilderness for 40 years. They were stuck living in a place God only intended for them to pass through. Imagine that – 40 years. If someone had a baby boy when they first arrived in the wilderness, that baby was a 40 year old man by the time the Israelites left the wilderness. That is a long time. That is a long time to be stuck living a life inferior to that which God has planned for you.

Thinking you are all great by yourself, sets you up for destruction, Proverbs 16:18. Thinking too little of yourself means you stay stuck in places so small they shouldn’t be able to contain you. However, seeing yourself as a child of God, loved by God, with heaven’s full backing makes you an overcomer.

1 John 4:4 says, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Whatever comes your way, remember, the Greater One lives in you. Don’t allow yourself to stay stuck in places you should only be passing through.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.