God has press on my heart to tell you this. this thing I am about to tell you is very deep within and very hard for me to tell you. There are times when I hate my disability, I hate that sound of the way I talk and I hate how weak my hands are. I am ashamed of it! This is reason why I avoid talking to people, especially guys because I am embarrassed for them to see how disabled I am, I don't want them to reject not only me, but my disability!
We all have things we hate about ourselves, girls are especially guilty of this! Can I ask why? I want you to think of this. If God has called us to be apart from this world, then why are we measuring up to the world, God had made each and everyone of us just the way we are, He accepts us with all our flaws and weaknesses, we should appreciate these things we don't like about ourselves and I will tell you why, Christ's purpose wasn't for us to have these things but because we do have all these things, we can use them, for HIS GLORY!
In II Cor. 12:7-10 says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
We should embrace these things for just as that verse says, For His power is made perfect in weakness and for when I am weak then I am strong," God's power is in these things that we are so scared to show, I believe that these things are going to show the strength of God to a broken and hurt world, the reason I believe in this is as we reveal this truth, people will start to see that God is not a God for perfect people, He is a God for broken and hurt people!!! Christi Armstrong said Being strong doesn't mean you have to feel strong inside. In fact, being strong means admitting when you don't feel it. God is our strength and He can walk us through any memory, any raw emotion, any deep scar. They are not to be feared, because He has them in His hands.'
All of the fears, regrets, hurts, this stuff that you have held in for so long that is weigh you down I want to remind you tonight you are more than all of it and that they are nothing in the shadow and power of the cross! When you lay these things into Jesus' hands through Christ those things that once were ugly are now turned into beautiful things that Christ will show His love through them in you! I also want you to remember from now on, that every time someone tries to tell you that you can't and the world tries to define what or who you are those voices tonight are silenced, because you are not defined by world, but by God!!
