The Struggle Is Really Real
- MCW
- Jun 30, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 3, 2020
Dear YOU,
Being a creative comes with a lot of mental & spiritual attack. After all, God has gifted us with a power He is most known for—creating. But creating isn't who we are, it's what we are blessed to do. Before I came to fully know and understand this, I was lost. I solely based my identity in my art and that only gave the enemy room to come in and TRY to destroy me.
In December 2018, I was working on a piece for the first art competition I would ever enter into. [I never considered doing this because I never acknowledged my work as good enough or competition worthy.] That night, while working, my mind began to fill with doubt pertaining to my level of skill and my mood and perspective immediately shifted into a posture of defeat. On the other hand, through God's grace there were also thoughts reminding me of what God had already spoken over me. No, I'm not crazy (even though some may debate) this is the truth of spiritual warfare and the battle of the mind. This is why the Bible says that our spirit is willing but our body is weak 《Mark 14:38》.
I was also shortly reassured by receiving a message from a follower on Instagram saying that I was an inspiration to them. But just as the enemy does—trying to counteract God—I ended up scrolling through my feed and reading a post from a fellow Artist stating that she had only started doing art in December 2017 but was already making money by May 2018. You can imagine how my poor heart sank, thinking that I was wasting my time drawing since I was a little girl. I literally started hearing things in my mind like, "stop now", "you should just quit" and "why are you even trying?" I felt like I'd lost that battle. I promptly stopped what I was doing and started packing all of things away and while doing so, I heard a voice telling me not to throw my work away yet. To keep it and look back at it. So I did.
For a few months I wasn't doing any art. I began to increase my time with God and over time I started understanding two things:
1. My journey isn't everyone else's. Two cars heading the same direction may not take the same route because God wants to teach one to trust Him with more turns than He does the other.
2. I am not what I do. I am who God says I am. First and foremost, I am His child and my relationship with Him is more important than what I can do for Him or what He has gifted me to do.
In order to step into your true potential— who God has always intended for you to be—we need to know that it is in Him our identity is found.
I still struggle sometimes (because I'm an imperfect human, as are you) but now I can always be reminded of the truth of what God says and I want to encourage you to seek Him for yourselves and allow Him to show you who you really are outside of what you do.
—xo,
MCW
P.s- If you need reminding that you aren't alone on this journey to self-discovery, as well as some poetic prayer to help you communicate with God, then be sure to purchase my first poetry collection titled Ready Or Not at this link below:
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