How to Overcome Your Insecurities

There are certain seasons in life where God will heighten our opportunity for healing in a special way. So here are 3 signs God is calling you to overcome your insecurities by going through an intentional season of healing and maturity with Christ.

1. If Your Insecurities Are Becoming Too Much to Bear, This Is a Sign God Is Preparing You to Overcome These Issues

The path to healing and maturity is truly a journey. One of the ways God helps us get out of those valleys and overcome the mountains we still face is by allowing the negative emotions to rise to a place in our hearts to where we can no longer ignore them.

For example, perhaps you have always dealt with some slight social anxiety, but if this these negative emotions are now actually getting worse, this could be a sign God is preparing you to truly face these issues head on. Or perhaps you have always felt some shame about your body, but now you are starting to feel even more depressed about yourself than you ever have in the past. God could be allowing this depression to rise to a level of concern where you are forced to deal with the root issues revolving around your shame about your body.

This makes me think of how Jesus helped Peter overcome his issues in John 21. Peter had failed Jesus by denying him three times. Of course Peter was devastated by his own failures and surely felt all kinds of shame and insecurities because of all this. What I find interesting is that Jesus did not address all this with Peter until at least a week after his resurrection. When Jesus appeared on the shore while Peter was fishing in John 21, it feels like the timing was just right. Jesus didn’t rush it. He let Peter’s emotions swell to a point where he was fully ready to face his inner demons. Notice what happens in John 21:17. It states:

He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 

When I read this passage, it feels like Jesus knew he had to break Peter down before he could build him back up. He knew just what to say and when to say it to help Peter face his issues in a way that helped Peter really overcome what was holding him back.

So if the emotions are beginning to swell in you and you feel like you are almost at your breaking point, perhaps you are. Perhaps God wants you to get to that point so you can truly face whatever it is that is holding you back and causing all those insecurities in you.

2. If God Is Showing You How Your Insecurities Are Stopping You from Receiving the Desires of Your Heart, This Is a Sign God Is Motivating You to Overcome Your Insecurities

People often believe that if you are motivated by anything that might bring yourself pleasure, this somehow cheapens your service to God.

Certainly to be a Christian means you must sacrifice for God. As Jesus said, to truly find our life we must first give up our life first (Mark 8:35). We must now put God’s desire over our desires if we truly hope to live the Christian life well. But to think that we should do this with a sterile motive with no hope for joy is not biblical. God actually motivates us to give up sinful pleasures by reminding us of the greater pleasures we will have in Christ if we do so. For in Hebrews 12:1-3 we are taught:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

Why did Jesus go to the cross even though he didn’t want to? He did not endure this suffering because he loved pain but rather “for the joy that was set before him.” Throughout the Bible God motivates us to do the hard things by reminding us of the rewards we will gain in Christ when we obey him.

Likewise, when you are dealing with insecurities, sometimes the hardest thing to do is to actually look within yourself and face the inner demons that are holding you back. How will we ever find the motivation to do such an unpleasant task? One way God will help you overcome your insecurities is by highlighting the good you are missing out on by remaining stuck in fear.

One common example of all this occurs in someone who truly wants to honor God in marriage one day but also has many insecurities in regards to the opposite sex. God will help you work on your insecurities by increasing your desire for marriage. The more you want to be married, the more motivation you will have to overcome the insecurities that you know are hindering you from getting into a relationship.

So when God begins to show you that your insecurities are actually one of the major barriers blocking the blessings that you are asking him for, this is a sign God is motivating you to deal with your insecurities that are holding you back.

3. If God Is Deepening Your Biblical Knowledge About Your Identity in Christ, This Is a Sign God Is Preparing You to Overcome Your Insecurities

Our subjective experiences are governed by our objective beliefs. In other words, the way you feel about yourself is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. If you believe you are ugly and unworthy of love, you will feel ugly and unworthy of love. If you believe you are a failure that will never get their life together, you will feel like a failure who will never get their life together.

But you can’t just believe whatever you want. If I just really believed I could dunk a basketball, this will not change my ability to do so. I’m still a short white guy who has never been able to dunk and will never be able to dunk. Believing a lie will not make it true. But let’s say I really did have the natural ability to dunk. Let’s say I was 6’5 and athletic enough to jump that high. If I believed I was a short white guy, I would then act like a short white guy and this false belief would hinder my ability.

So we can’t just believe whatever we want to get the results that we want. Rather, the key is to believe what is true. And to believe what is true, this means we need to go right to the source of truth, which is the word of God. If you want to live from your new identity in Christ, you have to know the truth about your new identity in Christ according the Bible. When you start believing what is true of you as a Christian as describe in the Scriptures, this will cause you to live that out. Notice what Galatians 5:1 states:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Notice that Paul first points out the objective truth that Christ already has set the Christian free. But now we still have to apply this truth and live free. How do we live free? By believing the truth that we already are free. If you are free but you believe you are still a slave, you will still live like a slave. But when you know that you are free in Christ, you will then be empowered to live free. So the real key to overcoming insecurities is not about gaining something you don’t have, but rather realizing who you already are in Christ.

If you are truly a Christian, you are not becoming free. You already are free in Christ. Now you just need to realize this truth deep in your heart so you can live it out every day.

So if you are spending time in God’s word and learning more about your true identity in Christ, this is a sign God is helping you overcome your insecurities as you fully embrace your freedom in Christ.