Who am I to be great?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." - Marianne Williamson

For a long time, I struggled with confidence and with embracing who God was calling me to be. Like many of us, the light I carry, the talent I've been blessed with, frightens me. I’ve never had the desire to be known, or to be influential, or stand out. I've always been creative and different, but I never thought of those things as powerful. While I knew that God had a special plan for my life, I was trying to control just how special and how much greatness I would achieve. I wanted to make great contributions, travel, live my life, finish school, and do what any other 24-year-old wants to do in life. Rather than highlight and celebrate my own greatness, I was always the one to showcase and hide behind the gifts of others.

But, no matter how much opposition or how many times I tried to hide behind my light and my calling, God always found a way to expose it, bringing it to the forefront, reminding me how precious and great the calling on my life really was.

What is He trying tell you? I truly believe He is always yearning to have a deeper connection with us and sometimes His only way of connecting and sharing His word is through the people, places, and things around us. Whether they are aware of it or not; they remind us of who we are, that we are loved and important. Just like He uses people to speak His message, I believe he uses creative and powerful outlets, like music, to minister to our hearts.

As I reflect on the past few months, I recognize that God has been talking to me through the words of people, messages from church, and my own life happenings. Last week He wrapped up His message to me with a very special song titled: The Greatest.

“If the mind can conceive it and the heart will believe it then there no reason I can't achieve it."

This song, by Miami artist James Klynn, beautifully ties together all of the feelings of fear, lack of faith, and greatness into a powerful and affirming message that I can listen to whenever I start to question my own greatness. In his meaningful song about The Greatest—Muhammad Ali—Klynn shares his own lessons from the icon's valuable experiences that can inspire us all, in some way, to know how great we are.

Klynn, throughout the song, dropped some Gems, some take-a-ways that can push us to embrace who we are and what we’ve been called to do:

“It's lack of faith that makes us all afraid”

“Believe in God and yourself and be saved”

“The heart of a champion never dies when the impact it had on the world is still alive”

Remember, no matter how uncomfortable you are: That calling is yours. The question is, what will you do with it? You see, as Pastor Rich Wilkerson, Jr. (2016) of Vous Church, Miami shared: We don't serve a microwave God—He doesn't have hot pocket dreams for us—His dreams have greatness written all over them.

What's keeping you from your greatness?

Whatever it is: whether fear, pain, your past, or otherwise,

Acknowledge it, feel it, and then, leave it. Don't meditate on it, but, use it as fuel to motivate you. Pray about it and let it go. Don't allow those things to cripple or dim your light any longer. Accept the fact that you were called to be great! Say it! You are great!

Find a bible verse, a song, or an affirmation to turn to when we you start to question your greatness.

Your greatness is waiting for your belief. With the belief in yourself, coupled with your belief and faith in God, you can break any barrier, end any cycle, and overcome any obstacle that comes your way.

The world is waiting for something new, something great! That something is you.

Embrace your greatness! Stay encouraged Gems.

Love,
Lauren Alyssa