Throughout
my teaching years I have had the opportunity to use a quote from Eleanor
Roosevelt. Perhaps you are familiar with
it?
“No one can
intimidate you (make you feel inferior)
without your consent.”
It’s
not unusual for some to find it easy to pick on people who are less fortunate
than they are.
Growing up I wasn't a stranger to intimidation and feelings of inferiority. Those who have physical or mental disabilities and even those of
us who are religious don’t escape cruel works of the enemy. You don’t even have
to fall into one of these categories in order to become a target of
condemnation or intimidation; you just have to be different than the accuser.
There are
some people who want to feel superior, and use condemnation to belittle others,
making them feel condemned or inferior.
Condemnation is a tool used to make us feel intimidated causing self-doubt
and worthlessness to creep into our thinking.
It is an instrument intentionally used to lift up one person while
putting another individual down emotionally.
I can’t
remember a time when I haven’t let intimidation become an active part of my
life. It is a continual weapon of the
devil that I have to battle. The
difference with how I reacted to intimidation in the past and how I act on it
today are worlds apart.
If you are a
born again Christian, you no longer have to give into the feeling of intimidation. Condemnation should have no say over you
anymore, because you now belong to God.
Forgiven, loved and valued is what God says about you as His child. In Him, old things are passed away, behold
(it means to look and see) all things are become new. (see 2 Corinthians 5:17)
Giving into intimidation is to say that the
devil and his cohorts are greater than God, and to give it place in our lives
is really sinning.
This is what
God says about it in Romans 8:1:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Condemnation is not of God, but of the devil (see 1 Timothy 3:6) and you don't have to fall prey to it any longer. Realize that if someone is using intimidation on you they have their own issues. They refuse to deal with the reasons why they feel the need to condemn or intimidate, and are only using you as a sounding board or target. Recognize it's the devil working through them because he saw you as a weak vessel in the past.
Remember God uses the weak to accomplish great things. Let Him work His power in you by not giving in to those tactics any longer. God's grace is enough to help you gain authority over any situation.
Remember God uses the weak to accomplish great things. Let Him work His power in you by not giving in to those tactics any longer. God's grace is enough to help you gain authority over any situation.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when
I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
You are loved and worth everything to God. Would Jesus die for someone who wasn't worth anything? No, so stop consenting to intimidation and inferiority. It isn't effective if you don't give it any place. God has made you strong in His power to live a life free from intimidation and condemnation. Believe God's words over anyone else's and watch how intimidation no longer has an effect on your life. Sing praises to the living God, because He loves us greatly.
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Scripture reference taken from the King James Version provided by Bible Gateway.
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