The God and His Love
By Jason Harris

In part three, we saw that a mature experience of God’s love for us is the only real cure for insecurity. But knowing the love of God will not help unless we really know both the God Who loves us, and the kind of love that He has for us. God is not like our human role models who may fail us. His love isn’t fickle and changing like human love. He is an unchanging God with an unfailing love.

An unchanging God

There are three majestic facets of God’s character around which all of His attributes group. First, God is infinitely strong (2 Peter 1:3). God can do whatever he wants to do. Full stop. His strength is infinite. Second, God is infinitely wise. Romans 16:27 describes Him as “God only wise.” That’s referring to the fact that God is only ever wise. He never makes unwise decisions. Never. Since all of God’s choices are based on His infinite wisdom and His wisdom is based on His infinite Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding God’s Love For You
By Jason Harris

In part one and two we saw that it is fear that drives the insecure person. While this helps us understand why the insecure person acts the way he does, it doesn’t bring us to a solution. In order to find the solution, we must find out what is driving the fear that drives this person. We’ve got to get to the heart of the problem.

The heart of the problem

The solution to insecurity lies in understanding that it is unbelief that drives fear and insecurity. First John 4:18 says “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect [mature] in love.” The person who understands the awesome and unconditional love of God for him will not be crippled by Read the rest of this entry »

A Snapshot of Insecurity
By Jason Harris

In part one, we saw in the lives of Jonathan and Nicole that insecurity is a crippling problem and is driven by fear. In part two, we’ll continue to probe the motives and desires of the insecure heart so that we can come to a meaningful and effective solution.

Probing deeper

Fear in the heart does not always look the same on the outside. As in the cases of Jonathan and Nicole, no two people will manifest their insecurity exactly the same way, but there are some common responses that can clue us in to the real problem. Let’s look at some common characteristics of insecurity:

Insecurity is unpredictable. An insecure person lives life with a set of motives and desires that are not apparent to the casual observer. As with Jonathan, his “shyness” could be interpreted as passivity, but it is not. Jonathan knows exactly what he wants, and he is passionately pursuing it. Unfortunately, Jonathan’s classmates only see him as shy and timid. He might be mocked or ridiculed as a loner. He might be seen as a snob. Whatever the case, if the other young people do not understand what’s driving him, he will be unpredictable to them. Nicole is also baffling to herself and especially to her friend Sarah. Sarah never knows what to expect… except the unexpected. Of course this has put a serious strain on the relationship.

Insecurity is hard to get close to. Jonathan is very difficult to get close to because he has created a steel re-enforced protective barrier over his real thoughts and feelings. He’s been hurt too many times to Read the rest of this entry »

A Crippling Problem
By Jason Harris

Jonathan was running a few minutes late. He gave a tense nod as he entered the classroom and quickly moved to a seat in the back. He had only been at this high school for a few weeks and his one goal in life was to not be noticed. At home, his mum was ok, but whenever his dad noticed him, it tended to result in some cutting remark about his abilities or intelligence. He didn’t mind really””at least that’s what he told himself. After all, he was used to it and much of what his dad said was true. Still he hated being late. Whenever he was late, he would move quickly to the back, stepping carefully to be sure he didn’t trip or do something that would make everyone think he was stupid. Even so, the thought of twenty people staring at him as he walked into the room choked him with suffocating emotions. These emotions seemed to control him at times. In fact, they were crippling.

…

Nicole’s eyes flamed as she looked at her best friend, Sarah. Nicole turned and stomped off in a fury, but Sarah was used to this. All she had to do was make one comment or disagree in the least and Nicole would have one of her “moments.” This time it was over another friend. Nicole and Sarah had been eating lunch together when this friend had asked Sarah if she wanted a drink. Sarah had gone with the friend to get a drink and had gotten caught up talking for a few minutes. When she returned to the table, Nicole demanded to know where she had been. A simple response had brought this on. Nicole knew she was over-reacting and she knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t understand why she was so sensitive, so touchy about her friends. What she did know was that when it came to her relationships, whatever was causing this, it was crippling.

The driving factor

Insecurity””we all face it to some extent, but for some it is a life-dominating struggle. You may not be in exactly the same situation as Jonathan or Nicole, but perhaps you see yourself in their responses or thought patterns. The purpose of this study is give hope for those who find themselves emotionally and spiritually crippled by insecurity. In order to understand the solution to insecurity Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost impossible to express the depth of pain experienced by someone with an abused, neglected, or otherwise scarred background. Even after years of healing, the wounds can be shockingly fresh. One of the most common results of a conflicted past is an insecure present.

Insecurity, while not restricted to youth, is at epidemic proportions among youth today. Over the next several weeks, we’re going to be releasing a four-part series of articles on insecurity along with a companion three-part podcast series. You can listen to the podcast series here.

It is my prayer that these bite-sized segments will not only be helpful, but life-changing for some. They’ve certainly been life-changing for me.

By Nabeel Zaydan

As we live our days, sometimes we’re going along and suddenly we’re knocked down by some unexpected circumstance. Everything is out of focus and we begin gasping for our spiritual breath. Nothing seems to matter then except our circumstances. It may be a tragedy, a physical illness, a loss of job, children in trouble, financial problems, or one of a hundred things. At such a time as this, the most important thing is to know how to survive it and regain our spiritual breath. The only sure footing we have is the Word of God and absolute confidence in the Providential Sovereignty of God.

I. What is meant by Divine Providence?

Providence sums up the basic biblical teachings about God’s relationship to His World. It indicates God’s care for and supervision of all things, from the moment of creation on into eternity. “Pro” means “before””””Video” means “to see”””Providence means “to see before.” This means that God sees before and plans accordingly. Read the rest of this entry »

By Walter & Trudy Fremont

Mary, a talented Christian school teacher, came from a good Christian home and was a graduate from an outstanding Christian college. She married a businessman in her church who claimed to have been saved in childhood but was known for his jealousy, bad temper, and worldliness. While Mary was engaged, her friends warned her that he was a loser, but she was desperately in love with this handsome, misunderstood man and would not listen. She ignored warnings from parents and friends about his past and his character.

Seven years and three children later, Mary came to the counselor’s office bemoaning the fact that her husband was selfish, abusive, irresponsible in leading the family, and in debt for many thousands of dollars. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Jim Berg

The purpose of confronting men in the church who are not fulfilling their obligations to their families is to restore those men to usefulness and to reconcile them to God and to their wives and families. Read the rest of this entry »

Probably all of us would like to think that our life would make a difference in some way. Thinking about all the things we cannot change is both sobering and humbling. Whether it be a father with his son, a pastor with his people, or a discipler with his diciplee, the change that matters is never something that we can do on our own. We can convince someone to make outward changes, but change in the spiritual realm is something that requires the Holy Spirit’s working in the heart. The following lines were intended to be an article on this topic, but just kind of came out differently. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jason Harris

The Definition of Anger

The Macquarie Dictionary defines anger as “Strongly felt displeasure aroused by real or supposed wrongs, often accompanied by an impulse to retaliate.” Websters Dictionary defines anger as “A strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance.” So anger is a strong emotion of displeasure aroused by a real or imagined offence. I become angry when I am actually, or perceive myself to have been, wronged. Read the rest of this entry »