Keeping Up
Do you ever feel like you’re struggling to keep up? Like you are losing yourself as you are trying to be like those who look successful on social media or who are popular in your school/community? The best way to overcome this feeling of not being enough is by learning the truth of what God says about you. Then, you will become comfortable with being genuinely and authentically you!
You aren’t made to be an accumulation of the world’s trends and criticism, but of God’s Word and love!
How you are in your personal life should be able to translate to how you are in public. You shouldn’t feel like you are living two separate lives. Social media has made it hard to really know if a person is being genuinely themselves or portraying themselves to be a certain way. Most people use their social accounts as a highlight reel of their life to mask what they are really struggling with or insecure about. This doesn’t mean that, on the contrary, you should plaster your whole life over social media and tell of everything that is bothering you. The best way to come across as genuine and authentic is by learning how to manage emotions and situations in your private life. By doing so, you can share from the heart, when led, about how you learn to overcome them. Managing those things in your private life can be done with the support of friends and family. More importantly, you can learn from going to Jesus, trusting that He knows you and what is best! It is essential to be encouraging and to be an example to others, whether in everyday life or through what you share on social media. Ephesians 4:29 emphasizes why we need to watch our words so to make a positive impact. The verse warns, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Everyone observes, in one way or another, how a person is living, the way they carry themselves, and how they deal with things that happen in their lives. But keep in mind that, most of the time, people are more concerned about how they look and are portrayed, rather than about you. On the other hand, a person shouldn’t feel as if they have to pick another person apart and put them down to feel better about oneself. No matter how little an impact you think you are making compared to others, you are still influencing people in your own way. God created each person for His own purposes, and uses each person to be able to reach/influence someone else. Yes, God is that intentional! We are made to be there for each other, but first and foremost, we are made for our Creator!
If you truly want to make an impact, you have to operate out of what you were made to do. That includes sharing, and living out, the positive effects of the gospel as you come alongside others to go through life for Him! Galatians 1:10 gives insight into how to make the perspective change needed in order to do so! The verse reads, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” The Lord already approves of you and just wants you to learn what you have in Him, and the purpose He has given you, so that you can steward it well and share with others! You don’t know what the person you envy deals with or how they reached where they are in life. The only one you can find security in, and learn to be confident in, is God. Then, He helps you to be confident in who He has made you to be! You can only live and change your life, therefore, don’t try to learn to live someone else’s life.
Christ has said you are enough by dying for you- that should change how you carry yourself and live your life!
God sent His son, Jesus, who lived a sinless life, “and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedience to the point of death even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Jesus died for the whole worlds’ sin, hurt, insecurities, jealousy, anxiety and more. But it didn’t end there. We serve a living God! Jesus rose from the dead defeating all that was meant to keep you feeling captive and in despair. Ephesians 3:11-12 tells us how we have status and approval due to what Jesus has done for each one of us! The Word says, “This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.” We have access to God from wherever we are in the world. He hears us, and as He looks at us, He sees what Jesus has done for us! Therefore, we can go to Him with our hurt, insecurities, and confusion and He will exchange it for His healing, confidence, and clarity!
God is the only One who can truly change your life and help you to be comfortable in your skin.
When you trust in Him, looking to Him in all things, He will help you to live in a manner to which you have been called! Then, you can see yourself, and others around you, as children of God and as members of one body! As members of one body, we all have different purposes and functions, but we live for one reason that unites us and that is Jesus! When you begin to grasp what the Lord has done for you, how He sees you, and how He is wanting to use you, you will stop comparing a lot less with others. So, I hope you begin to live your personal life with God in the center of it all, as you learn more about Him, what He has done, and who He has made you to be! Then, you will be able to shine His light, and be an encouraging example to anyone you meet or all who come across your social media page! By doing this, the pressure and comparison will lessen when it comes to social media or status in your community. In addition, you will see how you don’t have to get lost in trying to keep up, as you already have a place in the body of Christ! He just wants you to share about Him, and what He is doing and teaching you in life, through the good and bad! Deuteronomy 31:8 encourages us as it says, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”” Therefore, trust in the Lord as you come to Him with your concerns of not feeling confident, or enough, and He will show you how to live with Him! Then, you will experience how the Lord will guide you in all you do, and say, for His glory and for your benefit!
