Word for the day: "No More Masquerades"
Today's word is brought to you by Min Robin Baker. Enjoy!
Psalm 139:14a (NIV) “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
There was a time in my life when I wanted to please everybody and wanted people to like me. I started doing and saying things that normally I would not say or do just to please people. I started wearing mask. There was a different mask worn depending on who it was I was trying to please, instead of just being me. I was so concerned with what people thought about me I pretended to be someone that I wasn’t. After a while I didn’t even know who I was any more. I had become comfortable hiding behind my mask. There were so many different personalities at times I felt like Sibyl. Until one day I woke up and realized that I was better than that. There was no longer a concern of what people thought about me. I was tired of wearing all of those masks. I was going to be me, and either you love me or you hate me.
My concern was to be who God purposed me to be. I no longer had to hide behind the mask. God had let me know that I was fearfully and wonderfully made. Maybe someone along the way has discouraged you. Put you down for being creative, or maybe for dreaming big, or laughing loudly. Perhaps a parent, teacher, pastor, friend or even a stranger didn’t accept how God created you to be and you transformed yourself to fit in their preferences. God sees behind our masks; He loves us and longs for us to be free from the fear of being rejected. If you’re constantly changing masks to fit in, then you know the awful burden of maintaining the false you. God didn’t create us to conform to other’s standards, but to stand out through our own God-given uniqueness.
Often times we’re willing to lose who we truly are in order to keep important relationships, like friends or family members. In our attempt to hide our insecurity or avoid betrayal and hurt, we create a mask—a look we’re willing to let the world see in order to be accepted. Why do we keep up the masquerade? Because we want acceptance, to please others, to hide our pain, to disguise fears and failures. We put on fronts to protect ourselves from an un-accepting world. And in doing so, we mask our true identity and lose our individuality. Aren’t you ready to stop the masquerade? Listen closely and hear God confirming to your heart today, “You are wonderfully made.” You no longer have to hide behind the mask.
Prayer: Lord, I desire freedom to lay down my masks and be myself. Help me identify my false sense of self. Enable me to recapture the person I was before I started masking my fears and insecurities. I no longer want to fit in where I don’t belong. I want to be all You created me to be. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
Min Robin Baker