Garage Sales and Feeling Inadequate

Garage Sales...you either love them or detest them. I happen to enjoy a good garage sale. I like rummaging through other peoples junk AND I like to have a garage sale and sell my old stuff. (Oh, that brings to mind a garage sale story I'll have to blog about...maybe tomorrow!).

Speaking of garage sales, did you read today about a woman that bought a little pin at a garage sale? It looked like a blinged out Lebron James jersey...like a little rhinestone trinket. Anyway, it turned out to be REAL DIAMONDS (!) and worth a lot more than the $5.oo she paid for it.

So why am I writing about garage sales? It's because of what I read today in the book I'm reading. Here's the quote:

"Satan delights in our feelings of inadequacy. He wants to help us stay there. He wants us to go to Bible study, learn the deep truths of God, leave all encouraged, and then come home and have a complete meltdown and question, 'why doesn't Jesus work for me?'" ~ Lysa TerKeurst, from Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl

Have you ever felt that way? I certainly have...more often than I care to admit. And the quote reminded me of a story that was told to me many years ago about the day Satan decided to have a garage sale. The story goes something like this:

Satan decided to have a garage sale. Like everyone he got out all his stuff, put price tags on it, and lay it all out on some tables. People came by to see what he had for sale. One table was filled with stuff like Pride, Envy, Greed, etc. All of Satan’s most familiar tools were there. The prices were high, but after all, these were the most famous weapons from Satan’s personal arsenal!

But off to one side there was a table with only one old, worn-out item on it. It wasn’t named, and the price tag was outrageous. “What tool is this, and why is it so expensive?” one customer asked.

Satan answered, “That is my most powerful secret weapon. It works where nothing else will, and it operates by stealth. Everybody recognizes these old tools, like Pride, Deceit, and Greed. But I can attack someone with this tool, and they will never even know it was me. Its name is Discouragement. When everything else has failed, just when someone is on the verge of fulfilling God’s purpose, I can launch this at them, like a submarine torpedo, and it goes straight to their heart without them ever knowing. It destroys their hope, their faith, and their joy, and they give up on everything God has in store for them. And because it works by stealth, they usually blame themselves and God. They never think to blame me at all.

“It’s the perfect weapon!” Satan said.

I often remind myself of this story. I have to. I'm one that becomes easily discouraged. That's when I tell myself to sing that old hymn, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look FULL in His wonderful face! And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."

And I also remind myself of God's promise from His word: In this world you will have many troubles, but FEAR NOT! I have overcome the world.

Isn't it wonderful to be His child?