Who Do You Think You Are?

The question “Who do you think you are?” or “Who does she think she is?” is more times than none posed in a negative way, with sarcasm and a frowned up face. It ends with a question mark and five exclamation marks to follow (?!!!!!). But that is not how I am posing the question to you my dear sisters. I really want to know, “Who do you think you are? I hear silence and crickets chirping. Why? This question is harder to answer than most people think, because it goes way beyond “what you do or your profession.” You’re a doctor. Okay, does that make you kindhearted and honest? Nope. Does it make you a person filled with compassion? Nope. I think we have all encountered a doctor or two who had no people skills whatsoever or treated you like you were just a piece of meat. You’re a teacher. Does that mean that you care about your students who struggle with learning? Nope. You could be one who is counting down the days to retirement. What we do, is not who we are. And I pray that today, I can encourage you to see that you are so much more than you probably realize.

Society has duped us as women into not seeing the true beauty that lives deep within us. We are great in so many ways, but we have been brainwashed to compare ourselves with what the world says is great and unique. When I went to clip art for this week’s picture, my search was “women.” and to my delight I was bombarded with picture after picture of confident women. Let’s take a moment and look at the one I picked. No matter what her title or position, her body language tells you, she is confident and a leader. No matter how many jobs or positions she may have in real life she would take that confidence and leadership ability with her, because that is part of who she is. Do you know my sisters, that every single woman who belongs to the Kingdom of God should be confident with great leadership ability? Well, if you weren’t sure of that, I’m here to assure you that it’s true.

This past weekend I attended a conference the Women of Faith group sponsors for teen girls. It is called The Revolve Tour and it is something I recommend for all teen age girls to experience. Whether they know the Lord or not! I am digressing, but I had to put a plug in for them, so back to my story. I met several really great women, but there was one in particular, that I knew from jump street was a leader. She didn’t have a take over spirit, she didn’t go, me, me, me or anything like that. It was her confidence that was the clue. She was tall in stature and she stood straight, didn’t slouch one bit, held her head high and even wore pumps. Her clothes weren’t fancy or designer because as volunteers we were to wear kaki pants and a black top. Sorry I didn’t read that part of the contract so I must confess I wasn’t dressed like the rest of the ushers. ~Smile~ When we did get a chance to talk and she shared parts of her life with me, (only after I asked) she just reinforced what I had come to realize some time ago, and that is, “confidence” wears well with anything. Confidence stands out in a crowd even if you’re just standing still and looking. Especially when your confidence is rooted in the Lord.

Just as this woman has traveled all over the world and held big positions where she runs things from the big office, that same confidence and leadership qualities that she possesses, should be in each of God’s girls!! Every mother should be leading her children with the confidence of the Lord! Every wife should be confident in her position as a “help mate” to her husband and a leader in her community. Does that mean you have to run for public office? No. You can be a great leader (by example) just in the way you carry yourself. Do you speak to everyone? Is there an elderly person you check in on? Are you willing to help when needed? Do you sweep your neighbors steps even when they don’t do yours? Are you at war with your neighbors or are you blessing them even though they don’t treat you well? As women of God, we should all be leaders in some fashion at our jobs, in our community, households, our kid’s schools, and any of the other hundreds of places we go. Our confidence should always be such that people know from the very first meeting that there is something special about us without us whipping out our Bible, quoting scripture, or shouting at the top of our lungs, “I am a Christian!”

God is explicit in letting us know that, “His ways are not our ways. And His thoughts are not like ours.” Therefore, He does not judge “big” the way the world and most of us do. Obedience of the smallest thing is big to God. Why? Because so many of His children are rebellious in spirit and disobedient to say the least. And He lets us know that obedience is huge to Him by promising us that, “Obedience brings blessings!” You might be the CFO of a huge company, but if the Lord says to you, “Step down and stay at home to raise your children.” And you say, “Not yet, I’m really going places.” Then your big position means nothing to Him versus that woman that answered and said, “Yes, Lord!” I know women who have given up big positions to be home, and if you could see the blessing and anointing on their husbands and children, you would not question God’s decision for them. Has it been easy? Of course not, but it has been worth every day of obedience they have walked in.

Let’s take a look at Jael, she was the wife of Heber and the one who drove the nail in the skull of Sisera. When I say nail, it would really be more like a stake. They used them to hold down the tents they lived in. Now she did something great for God, but what was her preparation like? I couldn’t find a lot about her, but I’m going to surmise that she had to be used to driving the nails (stakes into the ground) or else, she probably wouldn’t have had the confidence to drive it through his temples the way she did. It went all the way through. She literally nailed his head to the ground. It took strength and confidence to do that. I wonder if her life was one of menial labor compared to the glamorous life of the Proverbs 31 woman? To the world her life probably would not come close, but to God they are both great. In fact Jael, might be greater, how many women do you know who would be confident enough to play the scenario through the way she did? (See Judges 4:17-21) It is very possible that Jael might have felt a drudgery of sorts hammering those nails into the ground year after year. She might have felt that she was less than many other women in her tribe, but the one thing we know for sure, she had an upper body strength that women only achieve through physical training. Her position was the preparation for a special job that God had for her.

When I looked up the meaning of Confidence, I found: firm belief in oneself and ones abilities. That is true for the world, but for Believers, our Confidence, is a firm belief in God and His abilities. Also confidence of any sort gives you a feeling of security. So as you begin to believe you are who God says you are, your confidence in Him will grow, and so will you spiritually. God’s confidence grows from the inside out. In other words, you start to feel so good about who you are, that you discover your outward appearance doesn’t match the real you. We often have it backwards. When we are feeling down or our confidence and self esteem are low, we try to fix the outside to make us feel better, but when the inside changes, we want to change the outward to match the real us! That new hair do becomes a must, because what we see in the mirror is not really who we are. We are walking taller with our heads held high and our shoulder’s back. And in that confidence we realize we need a better fitting bra, cause the girls need to be lifted to match our new stance. Confidence that comes from believing you are beautiful because God says so, will help you to find an outfit that looks really good on your size 24 body. You’ll stop saying, “I hate shopping, I can’t find anything that looks good on me.” When our confidence and self esteem are lifted, so is everything else about us. We began to view all aspects of life differently. The reason is, because another light has gone on, taking us out of a dark corner where we stood captive. And freedom feels real good!!

It does not matter if you are someone like me, who never finished college, or you can be working on your second PhD and a scholar. You could be a stay at home mom, in between jobs, on disability, retired, single, a wife, or a single mom. You can clean houses for a living or manage a corporation that spans the entire West Coast. If you are in the family of Christ (Messiah) then you are counted as being great! And you should be living your life with confidence in this truth. My sisters, I challenge you to ask yourself, “Who do you think you are?” And if your thoughts are not God’s thoughts, it is time to standup and do something about that!

Our enemy constantly tries to tell me that it is too late for me. My time has passed. I missed the boat. But I constantly tell him that he is a liar and he is wrong, wrong, wrong!!!! And you know how I can do that? Because I believe what God says about me! At 56 (almost 57) I have a confidence that I have never possessed before, and it is going to take me to great places that I thought I had lost. But I realized (with the help of the Holy Spirit) that God’s Word has not changed and never will. It was my thinking that had veered off into the lane of unbelief.

My dear sisters, I pour my heart out to you on this, because I am living proof of how believing what the Bible says about you will turn your life around. If you’ve been doubting God or your purpose, I want you to stop it right now!! I want you to stop what I call, “Stinking Thinking,” and start thinking like God. Oh yeah, I Corinthian 2:16, tells us that we have the mind of Christ (Messiah), so that means the new creature in us, can think like our Master.

There is one thing though I do want to caution you about. There is a big difference between confidence and pride. Please do not get the two confused. Pride is boastful, vain, self seeking, self edifying and the list goes on. That is not confidence, in fact it is insecurity at its finest. With the confidence of the Lord you don’t have to shout it or talk about it to anyone. They will see on their own that there is something about you, just as I did this weekend in my new friend.

I pray that if you’ve been slouching a bit, that after you have read this, you will hoist the girls up, suck you belly in, throw your shoulders back and walk with a little more confidence than you did yesterday.

I love you my wonderful sisters, and I have been so very encouraged by writing to you today. I’ve wanted to stand up and shout, because I’m so happy with all God is doing in me. I’m learning to be free! And I pray that I am encouraging you along the way too!

We have a winner from last week’s drawing: SJ, from Columbus, OH. SJ, I’m going to contact you via email so that I can have Amazon.com ship your book. May it be a real blessing to you.

Love & Hugs
Ponnie