Deidra Riggs
About the Author

Deidra is a national speaker and the author of Every Little Thing: Making a World of Difference Right Where You Are, and One: Unity in a Divided World. Follow Deidra on Instagram @deidrariggs

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
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(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
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    • Oh, so glad you’re following, Ifeoma! Feeling insecure about one thing or another is something I think we can all relate to. Hopefully, this series will help us get the upper hand and begin to focus more on who Jesus sees when he looks at us.

  1. Thanks sooo much for sharing, Deidra! We all have our insecurities. I love how you described them as trespassing trolls! This year, our theme at church is extravagant faith. And this year, my main intention is to fear less. And when fear rears its ugly head, I’ll take it to God. I’ve been asking God to pour His faith into my heart and drown out all fear.

    God has really been working on my heart since the start of the year. I am truly blessed.

    Hugs & blessings,

    Donna

  2. Deidra,
    After meditating on the scripture, the words “You are mine” struck a chord with me. I picture God picking me up and claiming me while at the same time sweeping off all the junk attached to me (fear, doubt, insecurity, shame, etc.). Like dirty cobwebs, they all fall away and touch me no more. I am His and that is all that matters. Also, when I am in my Lord’s arms, the enemy can’t touch me…I am going to try to cling to that image. Thank you for giving me a boost into God’s arms this morning.
    Blessings,
    Bev

    • Those are the very same words that speak the loudest to me in that passage, Bev. I like how you focus on clinging to God rather than letting trespassing trolls and all their clutter cling to you!

  3. Thank you Deidra for this.

    You are mine spoke to me too. I think it’s so easy for past hurts and insecurities that we have dealt with to sometimes come back for a second in our minds again. God has dealt with him, we are his, we are his xxxx

    • You are so right right, Louise! God HAS dealt with all the things that trip us up. It is in our nature to let those things define us, but we can let God continue to make us new, even in the way we perceive our past hurts and insecurities. He can renew our thought process and we can walk in truth. Thanks for the reminder!

  4. Deidra, the way you describe that troll, I can see him in my minds eye. He’s ugly and familiar, but I call mine a gremlin. And I think those gremlins loose 50% of their power when we share with someone else what they are shouting in our ear. Thanks to you, now I know how to get rid of the other 50%. Thanks for sharing with us, sweet friend! Today is the day I sign up for your Jumping Tandem retreat. I can’t wait!

    • I think sometimes I get so used to whatever it is they’re shouting at me that I forget I don’t have to listen. Ha! You’re right. Sharing those thoughts and insecurities with someone we trust is often half the battle.

      (You just made my day! Can’t wait to see you in May!)

  5. Deidra just wanted to say this is written so well. Thank you for the reflection on our insecurities and what they are doing to us ~ weighing us down ~ and how we need God to help us get through and get over them to move on to whatever his plan is for us then.

    • Your words remind me of this encouragement in Hebrews 12:

      “…since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

      So much power and promise there! Run on!

  6. Well, Deidra, I didn’t sleep well, and your graphic word-picture has surely awakened me with a start! Trepassing troll! And I love the alliteration, btw. My grasping gremlin 🙂 is fear. . . fear of the future, fear of moving forward, fear of failure. It’s a particularly treacherous troll, because I can justify it. After all, we live in a fearful world—a world plagued by real danger. And what if God wants me to enter the fray of it? And when I realize that He might, then my gremlin grasps all the more tightly. Honestly, I can’t seem to get free of it. And then the gremlin of guilt grasps me, too, because, I am forgetting the promises you’ve quoted straight from the Word of God (I couldn’t believe you mentioned the promises about fear!) God tells us not to fear, because we are the redeemed, the called, the summoned, and He promises to be with us. So . . . knowing all that, I feel guilty when I fear. Who will set me free? It’s then that I realize that *I* can’t. I’m too weak to shake these gremlins from my back. But I know the One who is. He’s in me, and He’s for me. And He sent the trolls and gremlins packing. I need to cast myself on Him and allow Him to be my security. He is for me. Yes. No one can be against me. No. one! Thank you for a great post.
    Love
    Lynn

    • Ah, grasping gremlin. I see what you did, there. 🙂

      The more I talk to people, the more I realize just what a big role fear plays in our lives, Lynn. God must have known this about us, based on all the fear nots in the bible. But, you’ve bravely pulled back another layer that I don’t think we talk about too much and that is the guilt we often feel for feeling fearful in the first place! Oh, we are a complicated web of emotion and insecurity sometimes, aren’t we? Forgive me for sharing so much scripture here, but there is so much hope in Romans 8, particularly as we talk about fear and the guilt we feel because of our insecurities. Thank you, Lynn, for sending me to look for these words of encouragement:

      Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

      What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

      “For your sake we face death all day long;
      we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

      No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. —Romans 8:1, 31-38

  7. This is awesome stuff! I especially appreciate how you point out that we have the choice to carry the troll or drop him and face him down. I’ll be sharing this one!

  8. I knew you were speaking to me with this post. I told a friend a few days ago that my Nemesis (Fear) keeps sneaking up on me, we link arms and go skipping through the playground of life until It decides to yank me back, Hard! I let Fear make all my tough decisions. And I am left trembling. I believe my Nemesis doesn’t look troll-ish or gremlin-ish. It wears disguises of friendly innocence. It is time to have that talk you mentioned and steal its wardrobe so I can be prepared when It tries to grasp at my hand in the future.

    • Ah, your troll is also fond of playing dress-up, huh? They are so cunning, aren’t they? We take them out for ice cream and pay their admission to the theater, and all the while, they are sucking us dry. Yep. It’s time for that talk.

      I appreciate your acknowledgement that we often let fear decide for us. Fear is wimpy. It makes wimpy decisions. Press on, Kim! I’m praying, right now, that God will flood you and shower you with the confidence that comes in knowing you are his.

  9. Love this, Deidra. My favorite line is, “Then, I turned around and faced him — eye-to-eye.”

    For so long I thought the best way to handle my insecurities was to ignore them. As a child of God I knew I shouldn’t be insecure because of all His promises, so instead of facing my insecurities I brushed them under the rug thinking I shouldn’t acknowledge them.

    That pile under the rug grew taller and wider until one day I couldn’t take one step without stumbling over it. I had to learn to answer my insecurities with God’s truth instead of ignore them. And then, I could sweep that dirt where it belonged … right out the door of my heart!

    • Great imagery, Katy! I could see that rug, all piled up with stuff beneath it. I’m going to keep that in mind for the next time I find myself tripping over things.

  10. Deidra,

    Here my one word for 2015, Courage shows its face again. This word is timely as I have been reading Priscilla Shirer’s The Resolution for Women and I am on the chapter Authentically Me. I have been meditating on being His workmanship created for good work. So I shove the troll off my back and thank God that He prepared and fashioned me ahead of time to do His good work.

    • You had me at Priscilla Shirer. Love her. Keep reading, Tyra. Keep pressing on, knowing you are, indeed, created by God and in the image of God. And, you were created for good works, prepared in advance, with you in mind. Amen and amen.

  11. Deidra, what a dream that was! And, even more, what a wonderful awakening for you. My troll sounds a lot like my voice. It has a knack for reminding me how little wort I have. For years it told me to do whatever was necessary to gain the approval of people. The thing is, no matter what I’d do or say, that troll would keep reminding me that, if these people REALLY knew me, they’d reject me anyway.

    God has a way of bringing truth into my life with a question. He asked me, “Am I enough for you? Even if you had no friends but Me, am I enough for you?”

    This question still has to help me get the troll off my back sometimes. When I begin seeking affirmations from others. I am enough because of Jesus in me. He will never reject me because He delights in me.

    In me!

    Been needing to refresh this truth in my thoughts and heart recently. Thanks for adding the visual to the impressions in my mind. And thanks for sharing a bit of your journey. This was a beautiful post.

    • Impersonations are one the trolls’ best talents. They know how to make their voices sound exactly like ours! Sneaky.

      God asks the best questions, don’t you think? I mean, he cuts right to the heart of the matter (and, right to the heart, for that matter). That question he asked me about the troll on my back was exactly what I needed in that moment. Thank God for speaking to us in voices we recognize, over time, to be his.

  12. I really loved this post! How grateful to be redeemed through the Lord no matter where life has taken me or what choices I’ve made. It is so wonderful to know He loves me regardless — insecurities and all!

  13. Thank you for this! Such good truths! I love this passage in Isaiah 43…and the Lord has been speaking it to me several times this past week… I will ponder it even more.
    Bless you as you bless others!

  14. Such a powerful dream and post, Diedre! A picture I will carry with me. And it’s met me exactly where I’m at right now, at a vulnerable time when that insecurity digs its dirty fingers into my back. So in my mind I am shoving that troll off my back, shaking my finger at him and saying, “Did you hear Romans 43? You don’t own me. Jesus has called me by name! I am His!” Fastening my eyes again on Jesus and His love. In Him I am always enough. Thank you for this comfort today!

    I love the insecurity series. In fact, today my inbox has so many new posts that I had to sort through them and let some go as it was too overwhelming. When I came to Incourage, my heart said, “Yes, I must read the insecurity post.” I’m so glad I did.

    • Ha! “You don’t own me!” Love that! Love your boldness in the face of insecurity! Be bold, be strong. The Lord is with you, Trudy! So glad you made space to read this post.

  15. Thanks so much for this post. My word for 2015 is FEARLESS and Isaiah 43:1 is my scripture! When the ugly little troll jumps on my back and tries to come along for the ride, I’ll be sure to unleash him and kick him to the curb!

    • Right on, Marsha! I’m hearing a lot of people facing down fear this year. I think it’s going to be fun to see what God does as a result of all these fear-less women unleashed on the world. Blessings!

  16. Amazing post! What words and truth. Your story was excellent, and I am eager for my quiet time later today when I can review the truths of Isaiah and evaluate what trespassing trolls I am carrying.

  17. Deidre,

    Thank you for writing such an insightful post! Also thank you for responding to most of the posts! We truly appreciate it when the writers respond to our posts!!

    I love the analogy of the troll on your back. It had me going there. I don’t have a troll or gremlin-just some sneaky voice whispering in my ear “not smart, not good looking, not good enough”. I tend to listen to it some, but there are times when I will stop in my tracks and yell (not audibly all the time) “Devil take a hike”. “Get the heck out of here”. That seems to work for me.

    I plant scripture in my mind like “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you”. Jeremiah 29:11 and I am constantly hearing “fear Not. For I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

    Blessings 🙂

  18. I’m learning to discern if the trolls are from me doing it or from others!!! No, I’m not a troll detective but I do take ‘troll’ spotting seriously. For twenty years my ‘troll’ was a broken relationship between me and my father. I look like him (in a cute girlie way) yet our relationship entangled hurt, pain, him missing in my youth, me angry at him, and me NEEDING him and not knowing how to say it and show it. BUT GOD…showed up and was loud about it. At first, the ‘healing’ identified an infected wound that needed surgery…following physical therapy. And that is what God did! He repaired us…..stretched us and stretched us until that that was stiff began move. Move in direction of chatting, checking on one another, sending texts, quick lunches, dinner, and spending the day together. Now my father is (somewhat) homeless and I surrendered to him and to HIM (the Lord). We are know is a place of awesomeness….we took our ‘brokenness’ and made it ‘unbreakable’. We laugh now, talk weekly over the phone, text each three to four times a week, and just love on each other. 1 Corinthians 13:4

    I decree and declare the troll to be removed from your life, thoughts, spirit, mouth, and actions. So what if you think it…God will erase it. Believe and believe and claim TROLL NO MORE!!!

  19. Now that was the encouraging reminder I needed. I think I can face that evaluation now. Thank you Diedra and thank you Abba!

  20. Isaiah 43:2 was the verse I kept in front of me over the year I went through breast & thyroid cancer…chemo for the breast cancer, radiation pills for the thyroid cancer, and 5 surgeries over a 14 month period. God gave me His peace that no matter what the outcome of the cancer was, He would be with me and would hold on to me through it all. There were blessings from family & friends, church family, and a Christian oncologist who was confident of my cure. God was a physical presence twice when I needed that; His presence washed over me like a rain shower during those 2 times when I felt like giving up and allowing despair to take over. I tell people all the time that while I have a hard time being thankful for cancer, I am so thankful for the blessings I received during that time that I would not have needed otherwise.