The Empowerment Project

It can be so difficult living in a world that doesn’t agree with your faith, not only doesn’t agree with it, but seems to seek to bash it and destroy the faith you have along the way.

Today we’re talking about how to handle those conversations and more importantly, how to love those people. Even when it’s hard.

Buckle up because this episode is a doozey!

Are Your Friendships Toxic?

Weekly chats with Mich!

Insecurities take many shapes. Most of us struggle with multiple insecurities, both mental and physical. I’ve always a lot of insecurities, more than average I would bet.

I never really considered myself a “confident” person, but then people started asking me for advice, how to live confidently, how I lived so confidently. This got me thinking… because I never set out to live confidently. I just took everything day by day and moment by moment. I didn’t choose to be confident, I just chose to love myself in moments where I could’ve chosen to hate myself and that is what turned into a lifestyle of living confidently.

Not long ago, I asked my followers what assumptions they had about me and someone submitted, “you come off as confident, but actually have a lot of insecurities” and to tell you the truth, I LOVED this assumption. It really opened my eyes to so much. It got me thinking, “where do we come off thinking that in order to be confident, we can’t have insecurities? If that were the case, no one would be confident. We all fold under something. We all shy away at something.

I later had this revelation to help distinguish the two and how they coexist inside me so there is no power struggle, that my confidence gets to make all of the decisions, that my insecurities don’t limit the work I allow God to do in my life. Here it is:

My insecurities come from being human, but my confidence comes from knowing who I am in Christ.

The human in you, the flesh in you will have insecurities because you are FLAWED. Not because God messed you up, but because the filter through which we think due to our sin nature is incapable of performing perfectly, thinking perfectly. The sooner you accept that your mind is lying to you about who you are, the sooner you’ll be able to step into all God has called you to be.

In today’s episode, we focus on 1 Peter 3:3-4, what it means and how we can apply it to our lives and how it can actually CHANGE our lives.

So, untangle those earbuds, grab a cup of coffee and GO HIT PLAY!

I pray it reforms your idea of “beauty.” I pray this episode resonates with you in all the best ways.

-Mich

What labels do you wear?

• Labels will always minimize who you are.

• Labels can cause us to adopt a victimhood status which justifies our “inadequacy.”

  • It’s important to avoid adopting a victimhood status.

  • John 5

  • Misery loves company.

  • Pick up your mat and walk.

  • You can receive Jesus, but He doesn’t force you to live out your calling. Be brave.
    

• You have to make what Jesus did for you bigger than what the world says about you.
  You can only combat those labels by knowing who you are.
  Don’t partner with your label. How can two walk together unless they’re in agreement?

• Confront the label. You can’t change what you don’t confront.

• Quit focusing on changing other people’s perspective of you, and change your own perspective of you. Treat yourself with respect, others will follow.

• Being married to your weakness will keep you prisoned in your victim mentality and God has called you out of that way of living.

• “Labels. They may have been your old name, but they’re no longer the name you’ll respond to. Your name is the name you have chosen to live up to and if those names aren’t saying the same thing that God is, look in your mirror and repeat this… they have no right to be speaking to you.” - Hosanna Wong
  

I sat in my car the morning after a typical night out, hunched over my steering wheel sobbing, sobbing so much tears were flooding my mouth and my lap. Little bits and pieces flashed through my mind of the night before putting my spirit in physical pain. I know it sounds outrageous… and it was. I felt a weight so heavy it made it hard to breathe.

It was more than a night out. It was a lost battle. It was a war for my attention. It was a war for my heart.

I felt the weight of my sin. It killed me the way it couldn’t co-habitat with my spirit. Something had to change. Something had to go and nothing in me was going to allow it to be Jesus.

I repented right then and there. In a world that claims to be Christian, but looks exactly like the things He came to save us from, this wasn’t a popular move nor did it seem like something to be worked up about.

But I knew for me, I had been broken for my sin, broken for the things that broke him.

Once I came across this topic submission, I knew that it was something I wanted to touch on. “Falling Away” wasn’t just a season, it was disobedience. It was the repercussions of things that I’d put before God.

I’m thankful for the conviction, for the redirection, but more importantly I’m thankful for His abundant grace and the fact that He didn’t give up on me.

And He won’t give up on you either.

Spiritual Parenting, what is it? Should you have spiritual parents? Does it replace your biological parent? What’s the purpose? Is it even biblical? What do spiritual parents do? What do spiritual children do? And what that relationship looks like long-term?

Scott and Amy Wunderlich have been serving in ministry for 15 years and currently serve as the youth pastors as Overcomers Church International. Together, they lead and challenge teens, young adults and really anyone they’re around to rise above cultural pressures and stay determined and excited about living for Christ regardless of their circumstances. Their love for Christ is truly contagious. They really are the essence of a good Godly couple, one that I admire and look up to. They push each other to Jesus and chasing the heart of God together is truly the core and foundation of their relationship and I am so blessed to be one of their spiritual children.

There’s a lot of confusion around the term “spiritual parents” and today we hope to clear that up and share with you the beauty behind a relationship like this! I want to start off by saying that spiritual parents in no way replace or compete against biological parents. In fact, they compliment your biological parents. I whole heartedly believe I have such a health relationship with my parents because Scott and Amy have pushed me to honor and respect them, to listen, to obey, to be slow to speak, slow to get angry and encouraged me to trust their judgement.

Christian Leaders as Spiritual Parents:
The love between spiritual parents and spiritual children approximate a biological family but is deeply intimate because that relationship is fused not by blood, but by choice and covenant.

Your biological parents can absolutely be spiritual and great Godly leaders. However, sometimes it takes a village and spiritual guidance is crucial to a Christian’s walk. Mentors touch only certain areas of your life where they are experts. Parents walk with you through life, guide you with love and encourage you according to the callings and giftings God has placed on you. It is not a dictatorship, they don’t tell you what to do. They give guidance, offer help and encourage you to chase God. There have been plenty of times I chose to not take their advice (against my better judgement) but that’s all part of the relationship and growing together and just doing life together.

We get this concept from Paul and his letters to Timothy, Titus and even Onesimus. He writes to Timothy in Timothy 1 and 2 as well as 1 Corinthians, calling him his son in the faith and in each of these instances, as well as the other places where Paul calls someone his "son," he uses the Greek word "teknon" rather than the much more commonly used word for "son" in the New Testament "huios." It appears that "teknon" is often used in a more figurative sense than "huios."

Teknon is a term of affection that is used by Paul as a teacher to his disciples. He calls them, “My little children or little darlings”. Using this term, Paul is saying he is the one who birthed them (a group of people) and raised them up spiritually through the gospel that he preached to them. This solidifies their intimate relationship and vulnerability with one another.

What to Do When You Feel Overwhelmed

Anxiety is not of God. He did not give us a spirit of fear. He is not a God of confusion, He’s the giver of peace.

Philippians 4:6-7

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.”

The peace of God is a byproduct of prayer.

Get right with God, you will think clearer, process quicker and smoother and you’re less likely to feel off balance and out of control.

Do a brain dump.

Prioritize.

Don’t work for your schedule, make your schedule work for you.

Have a vision, pursue freedom of time.

3. invest in yourself!!

Even Jesus retreated! Don’t feel guilty about it. Find some hobbies!

4. Be intentional. Find what’s most important. You cannot say yes to everyone. Jesus wasn’t manipulated, guilted into stretching himself too thin!

Find your purpose and thrive there!!! 

5. Find a safe space to unplug.

Rest vs. Resting in Him