Bound Within, From Connect with God Volume II by Jentezen Franklin

I jumped ahead on reading my daily devotional, what I am sharing today is actually dated 11/26 and I sense it is appropriate for someone out there that needs to hear these words of encouragement. I was blessed when I read it and may you also be blessed.

"BOUND WITHIN"
If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ
Galatians 1:10 NIV
"Until you quit agreeing with those who've mistreated you, or the events that have crippled you emotionally, you'll remain locked in a prison of your own making. Too many of us have made it our life's work to change somebody else's opinion of us. We're determined to prove to them that we're valuable.
Never allow someone else's approval to become your goal. The truth is some folks may never like you. They may never see your good qualities.
Any time you agree with somebody who rejects or abuses you, you put yourself into bondage to them. By saying either in word or deed, "You were right to hit me, or leave me, or hurt me," you're tying yourself up with their opinion, rather than God's. Furthermore, when their opinion of you becomes your opinion, you've built a prison inside your soul with only one prisoner - you!
Are you prepared to accept that the person you've spent your life trying to impress may never be impressed? And are you prepared to accept that from God's perspective it doesn't matter? To deal effectively with others, you must be able to work along side of them without allowing yourself to be controlled by their moods, or governed by their opinion of you.
In all probability you don't need to be delivered from Satan or anybody else; you just need to change the wrong beliefs you have about yourself. When you can acknowledge that, you've taken the first step toward freedom."

Do not let others bind you up for in Christ Jesus there is freedom and liberty. Why would you settle for an old shoe when there is a brand new one that waits for you if you would only look up and look beyond your standing place to just a few inches away ahead of you, all wrapped up and presented as a most beautiful package. Waiting to be opened up for you to enjoy. Do you  know how to attain this gift? It is simple...put your desires aside and assist others. Reach out to others and in the reaching out to help others you will find that someone out there thinks you are very valuable and full of wisdom, talent, creativity, kindness and the list could go on and on and on. Choose today to not listen to the negativity that may seem to surround you but step away from that garbage talk and words that you may have heard all of your life. Choose to extend your gifts to one in need and watch the wonder that God will do in your life for taking your eyes off of you and reaching out to others. It works it really does. Just today there were 3 separate opportunities to bless others. My mother and myself chose to bless them and God took care of our needs today in the blessing of others. First opportunity we we at a store, an elderly couple inquired of an object we had in our cart. We directed them to the location of where they would be able to find that item. Then they were in line behind us and my mother struck up a conversation with them. We discovered that they needed 10 of the same item and they were only able to get 9 out of the 10. We then offered to them the one we had so they would be able to have the 10 they needed. You see, 9 were to be for them and the 10th one was going to a neighbor of theirs. As we walked away my mother commented that God will take care of us today with our needs. 2nd opportunity at another store I struck up a conversation with an elderly woman as she was looking at the same item I was looking at. I mentioned to her that if she lived close in proximity to the store that the same item would be on sale for an ever greater discount the next day. I wanted to verify that for her so I inquired of management and they agreed that the info was correct. She was going to get this particular item for her grandchild and take with her to TX. 3rd opportunity leaving the grocery store I saw someone drop a large package of paper towels from their shopping cart and then a car pulled out of their parking space and with their bumper sort of pushed the package into the main aisle. I stopped my car and said to my mother "I think the person that may have dropped these was loading their groceries into their car one aisle over. An elderly gentleman assisted by picking up the package and I told him I think they were this woman's and we walked over to her and sure enough she did not even realize that she dropped them as she was loading her groceries in her car and thanked us. Hey, the cost of paper towels could be expensive and that could have been a hassle for her to have to drive back to the store and let them know she did not get her paper towels.
God did take care of us today. We got the items we needed and a much nicer value than what I let go of earlier in the day. You see, if I wanted to be greedy and not help out an elderly couple I would have missed what God had in store for me right down the road this very day. I chose to not keep my focus on the old shoe that was right there but to open my eyes to the brand new one that was down the road waiting for me to discover.
Try it tomorrow, do not listen to the negative words that have been instilled in you since being a child and extend your hand to one that may need what you have. Give it up to see the greater, much grand picture God has in store for you.