Women Connect: Beyond the Masquerade
I went to this event tonight at a local church. Dr. Julianna Slattery spoke about the masks we as women wear that not only hide who we are or the things we deal with from other people but also keep up apart from God. It started way back in the beginning in the garden of Eden around Genesis 3:10 when Adam hid from God. Basically God went looking to spend time with the first man and women whom he had made and man because of sin was SO terrified of God that Adam hid! God was still merciful to Adam that in verse 21 he makes them clothes out of animal skins so Adam and Eve don’t have to continue to be naked to themselves or God… which now they can’t stand to be like that because of sin.
Fast forward to Paul who once was Saul…He did all the right things as Saul even persecuting the early Christians… but changed perspective when He realized all those “accomplishments” were really a loss… that what he now saw as a gain or positive in his life was his RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ! Not one single other thing mattered… other then drawing others to Christ…but that comes after the personal relationship with Jesus. YOU have to take this step daily to come closer to Jesus. You have as much of God as you want to have… so if you feel like you are lacking something and want more of God…what are you prepared to do about it???
Psalms 27:4 states “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”
Let me ask you a question that she brought up… when people tell you Jesus loves you… does it feel like when people tell you that your mom or dad love you? Does it feel like if I were to say Brad Pitt loves you? Does it feel like if I were to say my friend Chris Seale loves you? (The last question probably has you saying who is Chris Seale?…) Honestly ask yourself those questions… because if it feels like me telling you Brad Pitt loves you… which to be honest is the question that fits my relationship best with God at this time… I don’t really know Brad Pitt personally but I know of him. I do not have a close relationship with Brad… he would NOT know me if I ran smack into him on the street… I would want God to say he knows me!
To make matters worse we then hide behind masks… we don’t want others to see our flaws. We even forget to take off our masks around God (not like he doesn’t know the real me) but we aren’t being honest with ourselves if we can’t even be completely honest about who we are with the one person who knows everything about us… we also don’t have an actual relationship with Him either if we think we can keep up the masquerade around God. He wants us to tell him everything. He wants to help us. He wants us to know we are free… he already died for us to take the free gift of grace. All we do is accept it…
So my final thoughts after tonight are to reaffirm my daily commitment to grow closer in my relationship with God…
Will you join me?
Linaelini's Blog 