Training camp changed how I think of basically everything. One of the main things I took away from camp was declarations. This is speaking truth over someone or over a situation. At camp there were times we would speak declarations out loud about a country or ourselves. This made me extremely uncomfortable and the introvert in me came out. I would silently say declarations because I was afraid that someone would hear me and apparently I thought my declarations would be wrong. Well, declarations are truth…they can’t be wrong. Even though these made me uncomfortable, I still really liked the idea and it stuck with me. So…
When I got back from training camp I made three truth lists (yay for being a list person). They are: 1) Because of God I am… 2) By the grace of God I am not… 3) Thanks to my Father, I will/I do…
I made these lists, set them on my desk and moved on with my life. Unfortunately, I found myself falling back into the person I was before training camp, someone who would mess up, ask for forgiveness, be convinced I had changed, then mess up in the same way again. I got upset when people didn’t believe that I had changed, but then I would show them that I hadn’t changed at all. I kept trying to change myself, but without Christ I can’t change who I am, especially when I was thinking of myself as a sinner and not much more. I needed to remember who I am in Christ.
So I woke up one morning (thankfully I was home alone) and I read these lists out loud. At first it was a little weird, saying things like “I am beautiful,” “I am not a slave to sin,” “I do hear the voice of God.” But the more I said, the more I read with conviction, and the more I believed what I was saying (and the louder I talked). That day, the most powerful list I read was list number 2) By the grace of God I am not… This is mostly a list of things I have struggled with in my life and they are things I’m afraid I will struggle with again someday, but saying them aloud with conviction, I finally realized I have won. With the help my Father, I have overcome these challenges and they no longer have any power over me! I am dead to sin.
Every day, I wake up and read, with conviction, these truths. And every day, a different truth makes me especially excited and I find myself praising God for making that a truth in my life. I get overjoyed that I am free from fear, I am loved unconditionally, I am being used to glorify God and His kingdom!
Before, I wasn’t able to change because I was thinking of myself as a sinner, not a saint. We are born into sin, but because of Christ I am washed clean. If you are looking to have one epiphany today, let it be this: you are a saint! (who sins sometimes). Bring truth into your life, and believe me, it will change everything you are and everything you want to be.
