It’s Not An Option II
2 Corinthians 11:29-31 Amplified Bible (AMP)
29Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to stumble and fall and have his faith hurt, and I am not on fire [with sorrow or indignation]? 30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that [show] my infirmity [of the things by which I am made weak and contemptible in the eyes of my opponents]. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ knows, He Who is blessed and to be praised forevermore, that I do not lie.
Most of us would agree that being a Christian is not easy or for the faint of heart. I have heard Pastor and Preachers alike this days admitting to their weaknesses and bad days. I am happy that they do, because there used to be and still is a stigma and a perspective that being a Christian makes you perfect, flawless and faultless. One of the most difficult aspects is people, and their expectations of who we are as Christians. I used to think that to be a good Christian that I had to be a doormat and allow people to use and abuse me, to take advantage of me, but now I know better. I used to think that to have a bad day or that I had doubt or fear, was a sin, but now I know better. It is sad that we often let people take our options to be human and still be a child of God away from us. We allow them to bind us to their idea of Christianity and what we should be without even knowing God themselves or in some cases the worst offenders are people who profess Christ and are living in a state of reckless confusion.
If you are like me, you are concerned that you will bring distain upon the Kingdom so you watch your actions, and you are constantly tempering your words with grace. But I had to come to find out that although I have been in ministry for many years I had to take a break, because “People” were killing me with their mouths and their treatment, not people outside of church but inside. It was for reasons that baffle my mind even to this day, it was because I did not look like them (dress, jewelry, etc.) or because God was using me, and a man had not given me a title. So because of this I learned to try to almost walk a perfect line, a line that is a near impossibility for an imperfect human being. My option to be who God created me and was calling me to be, His, flaws, differences and all, were being taken from me. Even now, there are times when I am not allowed to show weaknesses because I write devotionals, minister, counsel others or have been saved a long time. But I am learning to boast in my weakness, not because they are present, but because it is in those weaknesses that God is perfected and that He becomes the strength, I am not walking in my own place of strength which is limited. I boast in these weaknesses because I realize that it gives others the ability to see that you can have them and still be used of God and still overcome and be successful, in spite of what people say or think!
Contrary to popular belief it is an option; it should always be an option to be yourself, to be the individual God created you to be. The blessed thing is that God made us uniquely who we are, for a reason and a purpose, and we need not allow people to take our option of individuality, struggles, weaknesses and our trials from us; believe it or not they are there for a reason. They are there because it keeps us relying on God, and it shows people that God uses the weakness of our lives to get His Glory out of us. He uses the times of doubt to prove to us and the world who He really is to us and through us. Don’t let anyone take your option to be a child of God, used of God, in a very unique and specific way for His Glory away from you. Our trials come to make us strong. Our weakness are present as a means of perfecting us, our uniqueness is because God instructed us that we are to work out our own salvation; so my salvation will never look like yours. So I have options, every day and chose God on my good days and on my worse days. My days full of faith and my days where I am struggling with areas of unbelief, and no one can take that away from me, nor should they take that away from YOU!
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