Dare to be different!

Countless times God tells His people to be separate. Even in the old testament, God told the israelites to COME OUT, to separate themselves from the rituals of the people around them. My fear is that all too often....I am not too much different from the world around me. I constantly need to remind myself.... " If I am not persecuted for being different, then I probably am not different enough." The Word of God speaks very clearly about the fact that if we are going to be true followers of Jesus, we WILL be persecuted ( In John 15:20 Jesus says, " If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you."However, the truth of the matter is that God is more concerned about me conforming to His image than He is me being comfortable and He makes that clear in Hebrews 2:10 that our salvation was made perfect through suffering.

We have to come to the place where we are willing to give up our reputation to follow Jesus. To CONFORM means, " to be similar or identical." If we look like, or conform, to who  Jesus is the world may not view us to be the most popular. The good news is that the more we follow Jesus, spend time with Him in prayer and in His Word, the sacrifice does not seem so big compared to the cross... In fact, the more we are with HIM, the more we start to really only care about what HE thinks about us, which is all we are supposed to care about anyway! Galatians 1:10 says we are only supposed to seek the approval of GOD, not the approval of MAN.

So, I know all of this sounds kind of harsh. Persecution....no reputation....unpopular and I am not undermining the fact that this is a STRUGGLE. I want you to think about something with me though. In the midst of the pressures of this world to be perfect, it is crucial to know as women that Jesus says we are enough. The outside doesn't matter, He looks at our hearts. The fact that we only have one Person to truly seek ultimate approval from and that is Jesus is kind of FREEING! Even better news...the one Person who we need seek our ultimate approval from, MADE us and loves us with an unending love. We do not find our identity in what others think about us. We find it in Jesus Christ.

Dare to be different, don't let the world frighten you into blending in.  Do not hide His righteousness in your heart as it says in 40:10 because you are afraid of the judgement of the world. Jesus tells us He has overcome the world in John 16:33 and He says you are let your light shine! :)