cornerstone church
  • Home
  • About
    • Pastor
    • Elders
    • Deacons
    • Director of Women's Ministry
    • Membership >
      • Membership Covenant
    • Statement of Faith
    • Contact
  • Adult
    • Women's Ministries
    • Men's Ministries
  • Youth
    • Children's Ministries
    • Teen's Ministries
  • Missions
  • Resources
    • Bible Reading Plan
    • Calendar of Events
  • Sermons
  • Blogs
    • Blogs By Pastor Jeff Owen
    • enCOURAGEment for Women
BLOGS

enCOURAGEment for women

Dangerous Assumptions

2/2/2017

 
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. – 1 Corinthians 2:2

Who can understand the mind of a woman?  No one aside from God.  I think we can all agree on that one, we even confuse ourselves much of the time.  The female mind is like a jungle: full of fantastic beauty, yet containing pathways of perilous danger.  Today I want to encourage you to block off one particular pathway and to train your thoughts to walk in gospel light. 

One of the most dangerous roads we tend to wander down in our minds is the pathway of comparisons.  We assume certain things are true about others when they are not.  Before we even enter a room of people we have a dozen thoughts zooming into our consciousness.  Thoughts of inadequacies and self-doubt, feelings of not measuring up in appearance, intelligence or experience.  We assume we are lacking in some serious ways that others are not. 

Even in our own homes we are not shielded from the taunts of deception.  We assume other women are better mothers, housekeepers and cooks (I mean, just look at their Facebook page).  We assume they are loaded with friends and social events when we are often lonely and longing for just one good girlfriend to hang out with.  We assume they have it all together while we are struggling to stay sane.

Stop the assumptions, ladies!  I’m here to tell you today that you are just not as special as you think you are!  One thing I have come to learn about women is that we are most certainly more alike than we are different.  We tread very similar pathways and experience what is common to womanhood.  Just like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.”  These deceptive assumptions that we allow (yes, allow) to cross our minds are from our enemy and his aim is our distraction (wow, are we easily distracted).  He has been using the same simple play book for decades on us.  Why not change up his strategy? Because it works!  We fall prey over and over again. 

No more.  Board up that perilous pathway of thought and walk away from it.  Send your thoughts where your all-knowing Father tells you to.  He makes it clear in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers [and sisters], whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Thoughts consumed by what is praise-worthy (the epitome of all of these attributes is Jesus) do not have time to wander off into darkness.  They are trained away from darkness and toward light.

I think Paul said it best when he said, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2.  When he went to the people of Corinth, he was not consumed with thoughts of his potential inadequacies (what he looked like, what the people would think of him, how he would compare).  In some ways he would have been inferior to them and other ways superior, but here is the point…it didn’t matter.  Paul didn’t care about any of that.  He decided to know only Jesus and what he did on the cross.  That was his only concern - to display the gospel.  His mind was trained away from petty, earthly concerns and trained onto gospel purposes.

That should be our concern too.  Not how we measure up (which is WAY off target to reality anyway) but how we can display the gospel to others.  We need to think on Jesus and display him in our actions.  Ladies, the next time you feel the coming bombardment of deceptive thoughts (whether in private or public) remember that you no longer take that path, it is off limits.  Do not entertain dangerous assumptions leading to pointless comparisons (truly idolatry of others).  Refuse to be distracted from your purpose for breathing! 
​
Train your mind to walk in the light of the Word and turn your thoughts onto your true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praise-worthy Savior.  Decide to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Adversity
    Anger
    Assurance
    Beauty
    Bible Study
    Biblical Womenhood
    Body Of Christ
    Children
    Christ Likeness
    Christ-Likeness
    Christmas
    Church
    Contentment
    Covenant
    Creation
    Death
    Depression
    Discipleship
    Easter
    Encouragement
    Endurance
    Evangelism
    Faith
    Forgiveness
    Giving
    Glory
    Gospel
    Happy
    Heaven
    Hell
    Holy
    Holy Spirit
    Homeschooling
    Hope
    Husband
    Jesus
    Joy
    Knowledge
    Love
    Marriage
    Missions
    Modesty
    Money
    Mother
    Obedience
    Prayer
    Preaching
    Purpose
    Relationship
    Resurrection
    Risk Taking
    Sanctification
    Satan
    Satisfaction
    Sin
    Singleness
    Sovereignty
    Spiritual Gifts
    Sufferring
    Thankful
    The Word Of God
    Time
    Treasure
    Trials
    Trust
    Wife
    Wives
    Worship

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
    • Pastor
    • Elders
    • Deacons
    • Director of Women's Ministry
    • Membership >
      • Membership Covenant
    • Statement of Faith
    • Contact
  • Adult
    • Women's Ministries
    • Men's Ministries
  • Youth
    • Children's Ministries
    • Teen's Ministries
  • Missions
  • Resources
    • Bible Reading Plan
    • Calendar of Events
  • Sermons
  • Blogs
    • Blogs By Pastor Jeff Owen
    • enCOURAGEment for Women