Hi Friend!

I don’t know about you, but I think life can be so hard!  I have let this broken world hurt me, harden me, and mold me into a person I thought I’d never become.  And well…That person wasn’t a pretty person.

I really lost myself while trying to find my place in this world – a world that tries to tell you everything you need to live up to.  And when I couldn’t measure up, I felt like an absolute failure. In certain chapters in my life:

I’ve failed in school. 
I’ve failed to make friends.
I’ve failed in marriage.
I’ve been fired from a job.

These failures have felt like a dagger to the heart, that has formed one nook and cranny of insecurity at a time.

I haven’t always dealt with my insecurities in the most upright way.  In my own strength, I dealt with them the best way I knew how.  Sometimes that included lying to others or lying to myself.  Sometimes it even included hurting others to make myself feel better.  It’s ugly I know.

But the point of my writing this series of Nooks and Crannies is to exemplify the freedom from insecurity I have found in Christ.

God has been revealing to me the nooks and crannies of my heart and character, because of the world’s effect on me and my own sin nature.  As I mature in my walk with God, I look back at my life without Christ, and see that without the grace of God I had so much rotten fruit in my life, like emptiness, loneliness, sexual immorality, bitterness; the list goes on…

I didn’t think that any of these things were a problem, because everyone struggles with these things, right?

Without the grace of God I was ignorant.  I thought I knew the way my brain ticked and the way the world worked. 

But the truth is this: I really didn’t know anything about myself.  I didn’t think I was selfish, prideful or insecure. However, God showed me I was all these things and more.

Some days it’s really hard seeing all the wretchedness in my heart.  And sometimes it’s even harder to realize that I’ve caused a lot of my own problems.  But my past doesn’t define me because that’s not the end of the story.

I want to deliver this Good News to you, to let you know that whatever it is you are struggling with today, that it doesn’t always have to be this way.  And that there is another way. 

That way is Jesus! 

Doing life His way has brought nothing but love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control over all of my feelings and emotions.  Tell me, who wouldn’t want these things in their life?  Sign me up, right?!

Although I am still far from perfect, each day I believe in faith, that whatever life throws at me, God is more then big enough, strong enough, and wise enough to carry me through it all.

Come read about my biggest weakness of insecurity and how it filtered into every part of my life.  All of my faults have brought me down to my knees, as I see the sinner that I am.  I know that Jesus is my only hope to finding freedom from all these inner heart struggles.  He has helped me SO much, but I know I still have a long way to go. We all do!

As I sit here and write all this down, I pray that someone else out there will find the freedom in Christ that I have found, so that they too can look to God for REAL and TRUE confidence; and live for God who is so much bigger then anything here on earth. 

He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. 

Living for someone so much bigger then myself, gives me a fresh newness of life.  I pray that you will find the abundant life in Christ!