“For the Most High Himself will establish her.”

Psalm 87:5

If you’re anything like me, many doubts, fears, worries, and regrets can easily overwhelm me and hinder me from becoming who I want to be. Not only that, but I have so many expectations of myself that I become my biggest competitor of my dreams, pressuring myself to finish the work that I dream to do. Because of this, I can easily wrestle with feeling behind on goals I have with life.

But to tell you the truth, my competitiveness started when I wanted to prove to others that I am more than what they said I was. I wanted to prove that I was going to accomplish so many things they didn’t because the LORD was on my side. It is true that the only way I made it this far was because of God’s grace on my life and that truly, I needed Him every moment. Yes, He receives the glory for the things that have worked well in my life and the things that He turned around for good. He gets the glory for everything because if it weren’t for Him opening the doors of opportunity, for bestowing favor, and offering me grace in my shortcomings, I would not have one single thing without Him.

Well, even after accomplishing some of my biggest dreams, that sense to compete and prove my worth has annoyingly stuck to me. Yet again, I feel like I need to prove my worth. Only this time, it isn’t about proving it to others, but proving it to myself.

As women, one of our innate needs is to feel worthy, whether we project that need onto a man, husband, boyfriend, significant other, job, thing, or like me, accomplishments. One of the hardest things is to sometimes believe that we are worthy. We feel like we need to hear it from a person or work towards it to believe it. I have struggled with both and my recent way of trying to meet this need is by working for it.

As a Christian, I know my worth is found in Christ and that He is my strength. I know that I need His grace to help me with the things He is calling me to. I also need His grace to further shape me as the woman He desires me to be.

Do you know how much pressure it is to try to prove your worth to others? Do you know how much pressure it is to compete with yourself? Have you ever struggled with either of these things? Have you ever felt behind and compared your life to others? Do you wrestle with the notion to prove your worth? Do you also place so many expectations on yourself and then grieve because you have not met them?

All of these questions that we have as women are put to rest at this scripture, “For the Most High Himself will establish her” (Psalm 87:5). The original Hebrew word in this verse is יְכוֹנְנֶ֣הָ which means to be firm, stable, set up, fixed, and secure. It refers to being made ready, prepared, provided for, furnished, fastened, and accomplished. While this scripture refers to Zion, God’s holy mountain in Jerusalem, being established as a beautiful, chosen place, it speaks volumes about our life in Him.

Those who have been reborn in Christ now behold the promise that God will establish them. Being established in God means that He is the One making us ready, preparing us, providing for us, furnishing us, fastening us, and that all the accomplishments are His.

The job does not depend on you or me to get to this certain point in life or to try to become anything. Ultimately, the work is God’s and our job is to press in Him, seek His face, and believe the words that He says about us. He is the One to take us from glory to glory. That is not a job for you or me. That is not ever something we should pressure ourselves or others with. But God Himself is the One working all this out for us.

This is a promise of peace because you and I do not ever have to work in our own limited and faulty strength, but God’s perfecting and unwavering strength. We get to rest in Him because ultimately, the final result depends on Him. The product of our life will be something beautiful, as beautiful as Zion. Not only is the product and result of His work going to be beautiful, but the process happening now is beautiful. As God continues to establish us as women that He is adorning for great things, we can believe that all our worth is found in Him and that we are exactly where He wants us to be.

Dear sister, God is establishing us in Him. All the dreams that we have are in His hands. Whatever time clock we are placing on ourselves can be thrown away because even though the world might tell you otherwise, we are not the ones in charge of our life. Placing a time clock on our goals poses the threat that all the work was in vain to satisfy our fleshly desires. When we throw the time clock away, as well as any sinful ambitions for selfish reasons, we finally give God our sincere and genuine service. As hard as that may be to resist the pressures we or others place on ourselves, we take our hands off the steering wheel to allow God His will in our life.

Even through all the struggles, regrets, setbacks, questions, resistance, and all, God is still in control and is faithful to work in our lives and to make something beautiful out of it. We get to rest in the work of His hands because the Most High Himself will establish us indeed.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your promise to establish us. Thank You that You can work through anything to accomplish Your will in my life. Keep my heart chasing after You more than my dreams. You are the keeper of my heart, and I praise You for that.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen