I’ve been following Jesus for 6 ½ years now, and there are still some things I cannot seem to comprehend about my faith.
I have lies and lies and lies poured out over my head daily by the enemy to my soul, who desires that I would quit and give up my faith, fall head first into the pit full of lies, and submit to his dreaded authority which leads to destruction.
The lies I hear daily: I am NOT good enough, I am NOT loved, I am NOT the woman of faith everyone thinks I am, I am NOT filled with the Holy Spirit the way true believers are, I am NOT worth remembering, my gifts and abilities are NOT godly just are apart of being alive, I am NOT confident in who He has created me to be, I do NOT hear the voice of God, I do NOT truly believe that God says He is who He is: dependable, unchanging, steadfast in love, and forgiving, that God does indeed work miracles but NOT through me, I am NOT worth it, I am NOT loving enough, I am NOT a useful vessel for the Kingdom.
LIES LIES LIES LIES. It makes me want to rip my ears off sometimes, because I ACTUALLY BELIEVE THEM!
The beauty and difficulty of the Race is that there is so much time to discover and have revealed to you the lies that the enemy has always spoken over you and that you’ve believed all your life. They tend to mold into different lies once you become a believer, because the lies never stop coming, it’s just the make-up of the lies comes with a different face. Before I was a believer the lies looked like this: You’re not beautiful, you’re not even worth a man’s attention, you’re nothing special, you’re not even worth remembering amongst your “friends,” you don’t deserve to be alive, and on and on those lies would go.
I went to counseling when I was a sophomore in college and the one thing I’ll never forget that my counselor taught me was this picture she drew for me. There I stand, with nothing but a shield, on a column, the shield representing my faith and the column representing the fact that I am set apart as a believer. Above my head there are normal arrows coming towards my head and then there are arrows with hearts on the ends of them. The normal arrows represent the lies from the enemy, while the arrows from God are the ones with hearts on the ends.
God, because we live in a fallen world, won’t stop the arrows of the enemy from coming at us, because He trusts us. But He simultaneously shoots arrows of love at us, because, well, He loves us. However, if we let the arrows from the enemy stick in our heads, they will eventually seep down into our hearts, and those lies become our reality. But we have a choice, will we choose to accept the lie that LOOKS like truth? Or will we choose God’s love for us, and the ACTUAL truth He speaks over us.
If you know me, I love the meaning of words, so the meaning of the word Lie means this: an intentionally false statement; used with reference to a situation involving deception.
The enemy INTENTIONALLY, not by accident, wants you to believe a lie about yourself, because it is the only thing he knows that will intentionally get you away from God the Loving Father.
I don’t know about you, my fellow brothers and sisters, but I’m done with that mess.
Father, you can have all of my heart, your love is so much more beautiful than I ever could ask or imagine, and it’s worth saying “no” to the enemy, it’s worth the battle over my heart. ‘God of mercy, sweet Love of mine, I have surrendered to Your design.’ I am Your righteousness, I am Your child, I am Your beautifully created daughter, I possess Your gifts of mercy, compassion, wisdom, exhortation, and love, You are speaking to me and through me, I am unique, the number of hairs on my head do not compare to the number of thoughts You have about me, I am counted as Your Beloved, You do use me, You are working in and through me, You do love me, AND THERE AIN’T NO LIE ABOUT IT.
