Freedom from Disapproval

Women are faced with so much pressure to be perfect: the perfect girl, the perfect friend, the perfect wife, the perfect mom, which is so unrealistic. However, a lot of women feel like failures because they are not perfect in every area of their lives. Joyce Meyer speaks about the main thing to focus on is God's love and loyalty. Here is an excerpt from her book, Power Thoughts.

Do you have an out-of-balance need for approval? Is there anyone you are allowing to control you due to fear?

I actually believe it is possible to be so afraid people will disapprove of us--what we say, what we do, what we think, how we look, what we value, or the choices we make--that we become addicted to approval. "Approval addiction" happens when people need the approval of others so much that they are miserable anytime they feel they don't have it. They even make certain decisions to gain approval rather than to follow their hearts, or to obey what they believe to be God's will for their lives.

The truth we must believe to overcome fear is that God is with us. We can easily feel afraid if we think about the future and all the things that are unknown to us. We can look at it two ways. We can either be negative and fearful, or we can be excited about being part of God's mystery, knowing He knows exactly what's going to happen and is right there with us, helping us and directing us.

We may not know what to do in a tense situation, but God does...and He has already planned our deliverance, so all we need to do is keep going forward.

"For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!

Romans 8:15