What Does Jesus Really Think about Me?

How many of you would love to hear someone say to you:

I call you by name and you are mine (Isaiah 43:1)

I am enthralled by your beauty. (Ps 45:11)

I take great delight in you. (Zeph 3:17)

I rejoice over you. (Zeph 3:17)

You are wonderfully made. (Ps 139:14)

I know your inmost thoughts. (Ps 139:1-2)

I long to confide in you. (Ps 25:14)

I am your protector. (Ps 121)

I will fight for you. (Exodus 14:14)

I am your helper. (Ps 118:7)

I am your strength when you are weak. (Is 40:29/2Cor 12:9)

I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

You are more than a conqueror and NOTHING can separate you from my love. (Romans 8:37-39)

I offer no condemnation. (Romans 8:1)

There is no fear in my love. (1 John 4:17-19)

I have taken away your punishment. (Zeph 3:15)

I will not reject you. (Ps 94:14)

You are accepted. (Romans 15:7)

You are chosen. (Col 3:12)

You are my friend. (John 15:14-15)

Has anyone ever spoken this way to you? and it lasted?  There is someone who thinks all of these things about you. There is someone who loves you JUST the way you are! You don’t have to do anything to earn it! You don’t have to change 20 things about yourself first. You just have to believe him! That person’s name is Jesus!

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? When you stare at your reflection what is the first thing that pops into your head?  Do you look at yourself and say, “Wow! I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am accepted. I am God’s friend?” Or… when you look in the mirror do you cringe? Do you think, “Wow, I wish I was taller, skinnier, or I wish my hair was different.” Maybe you don’t think along these lines, but you see yourself and wonder, “My life is meaningless. I have no purpose.” or “will I ever be smart enough or fast enough to make the cut?” or in this world of CRAZY “perfect” Mommy blogs you tell yourself you don’t measure up because you fed your kids bread that you didn’t make from scratch, chicken nuggets that came from a box, and they weren’t reading at the age of 2!

Every day we are going to walk in either joy/freedom or stress/depression based upon what we allow to fill our head when we look in the mirror. It is a conscious choice the moment your feet hit the floor… EVERY morning! The first thing we must do is…

RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF THE ENEMY!

We MUST realize that anything that pops into our head that does not agree with what the Bible tells us about ourselves is a lie!! It is not from God! In fact, John 8:44 tells us, “When (Satan) lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” When you listen to all those negative thoughts you repeat about yourself which contradict Scripture, you will start every morning the rest of your life with stress and not joy!  When you repent of your sins, confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead… You belong to God. Satan has no control over your eternal security. Therefore, he is going to try his hardest to destroy your joy and your confidence of who you are in Christ! He wants to make you forget ALL of what Christ says about you so that you will become completely ineffective for the Kingdom of God here on this earth.

The Bible tells us this truth in 1 Peter 5:8– “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. “ You see… Satan hates God. We are created in God’s image. Therefore, Satan hates us. He is taking the opportunity to devour you every time you look in the mirror or every time you compare yourself to others and begin to believe that you don’t measure up. Thinking negative thoughts about yourself every time you look in the mirror is not a “low self esteem” issue. It is a spiritual battle that we are CHOOSING to let Satan win!

That is why when we try to silence his voice through worldly means it never works out! We try to fix our insecurities by going to the right people. So we try to pick more popular friends, become the “favorite friend” in your class (or mom’s group). We try to get as many likes as possible on FB or Instagram. We try to see how many followers we can get on twitter or we place our value on how many texts we received in one day. When that doesn’t make us happy, because it won’t – we will never ALWAYS be the favorite or please everybody around us, we spend more money. We begin to believe that if we had newer or cuter clothes then people would like us. We begin to think that maybe if we showed more skin or were more fit and wore tighter clothes we would get more attention. Or we might work harder at our jobs, in exercise, etc… all to reach this “ideal” we have in our minds thinking if we could just get there we would be happy.

The problem is the world we live in is fickle!  One year plaid is all the rage. Other year’s neon is the way to go. Some years perms will make you a star, other times the fad is long wavy hair. The world is always changing! Nothing lasts! Some crowds will think you are awesome if you are the best musician. Other crowds think you need to be the best athlete. You are never going to please everybody. Remember, Satan’s goal is to make you forget WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST! THESE THINGS THAT CHRIST SAYS ABOUT YOU. Therefore, you are NEVER going be good enough, beautiful enough, smart enough, athletic enough, musical enough or skinny enough to silence his lies! Remember, he wants to devour your joy and ruin your confidence!!

Choosing not to see yourself as God sees you, is not just an issue when you are young!! I think a lot of us believed that when we were no longer a teenager all of these insecurities or what we have labeled “Self-esteem issues” would just go away. How is that working out for you?  You have to decide right now if you are going to keep plugging away at this, going the worldly route to silence that voice, making yourself exhausted and never getting anywhere… OR if you are going to fix the problem once and for all!!!!  There is only one solution that really works. Contrary to what the world will tell you. The ONLY solution is to FIRST recognize the voice of the enemy and then…

BELIEVE THE VOICE OF YOUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER!

DO YOU KNOW WHO HE IS? Hebrews 6:18 tells us (and I LOVE THIS) that it is IMPOSSIBLE for God to lie. That means when he tells you all of these precious promises in His Word, when he tells you that you are beautiful, wonderfully made, that HE will never leave you nor forsake you… IT IS TRUE!!! Let that sink in! God cannot lie! Bask in WHOSE you are! The Bible goes on to tell us in Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Malachi 3:6 says, “I the Lord do not change.” King David tells us in Psalm 102:27, “But you (Lord) remain the same, and your years will never end.” The world will fade away, fashions will change, your friends will move, but OUR LORD who NEVER LIES also NEVER CHANGES already accepts and loves you just the way you are!

Okay… so we know who Jesus is, and what he says about us, and now realize everything else is simply from the Father of lies… HOW do we silence the negativity?  It is time to FIGHT BACK!!! 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

We must memorize Scripture that apply to what you struggle with. Only way to stop lies is combat it with the truth. This verse tells us that we have power from God to demolish, ruin, kill, any argument or lie that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We now know what God says about us… it is time to use the power of the Word of God and kill the lie!! Literally… even if you have to do it out loud, say, “No! The same God that made the Heavens and the Earth, that keeps our universe from spiraling out of control, the same God that withheld nothing - not even his own son - but allowed Jesus to die for our sins so that we might have restored relationship with him, the same God that sacrificed himself so that we might be the righteousness of God, THAT God says that I am “beautiful,” that I am “Fearfully and wonderfully made!“

If we can believe God for our eternal salvation… then why do we choose to NOT believe that He created us perfectly according to His great plan?! Finally, to combat the lies of the enemy we have to …

CHOOSE NOT TO REPEAT THE LIES TO OUR SELF! IT is a CHOICE!!! Time to move onto the second part of that passage, “Take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” Instead of repeating the lies to yourself, (you aren’t skinny enough, you aren’t good enough, you have no purpose), take it and cast it away from you! Cathy Horner stated something this year in Lambs that I will never forget. She said that when you repeat something you are actually memorizing it! Don’t memorize lies. Take those wrong thoughts and tell them where they can go!!!!  :o) SPEAK TRUTH!!!!

YOU WILL NEVER HAVE VICTORY over the negative thoughts that penetrate your heart and mind until you start recognizing that they are directly from the mouth of our enemy and then CHOOSING (even when you don’t feel like it – even when you feel like all your friends like someone better than you – even when you haven’t showered in three days because you are buried in spit up, diapers or homeschooling) CHOOSE to believe the voice of your Father!!

God’s word offers us a very precious promise in James 4:7. This verse tells us that when we submit ourselves to God (meaning we place our lives under His authority and the authority of His Word… these things up here) then when we resist the Devil, HE MUST FLEE!!!!! The power of the Word of God will always send Satan running! You may have to speak His Word over and over until you believe it!

An Aside… Mom: Let’s not allow our voice to be the voice of the enemy to our daughters or granddaughters! Proverbs 10:11 tells us that “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.”  Those little “jokes/observations” that you think don’t mean anything – are NOT speaking life, but concealing violence!! We can actually allow Satan to destroy her belief in how God made her, through our own voice!!! It is serious how we use our mouth to those around us!!  Be careful that you are being a fountain of life! We also must be careful what we obsess over (Diet, weight, exercise.. even good things. If they see it as so important to us that it affects all of the decisions we make throughout the day. it will be important to them. What we do in moderation, they will do in excess). So let’s just be careful or what we are stating or acting like is the most important thing.  Finally, realize how we talk about ourselves. If we cannot learn to receive a compliment, or we are always putting ourselves down, our daughters are learning that is what they should be doing! Be a fountain of life!!! NOT the voice of the enemy speaking through you!

Okay… So we are looking in the mirror and we have fought against the voice of the enemy with Scripture. We have CHOSEN to believe the truthful , unchanging voice of our Heavenly Father… what now? How do we live in this crazy world? How do we dress to please him when all of our friends tell us that we need to look a certain way, act a certain way, etc.

Dress: The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” When you accept Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit chooses to live inside of you, and you become His home! Let’s make sure that when we dress, we are dressing to reflect that truth! Do you think Jesus wants His temple arrayed in super short dresses or low cut shirts that doesn’t leave anything to the imagination? NO! Christ died for that Body! Don’t sell it to the world by presenting it in a way that tries to sell sex and materialism and not the grace of God and His blood shed for you! Moms: Let’s start talking modesty now! It is a lot easier to cultivate a lifestyle of modesty starting at five and not fifteen! These decisions now can affect the type of boy that she attracts later. Let’s begin dressing her now to attract the type of son-in-law we want later!! Also, let’s watch how we dress. Our daughters will imitate us and usually go one step further. Is one step further from how we dress now, still acceptable?

Actions: Colossians 3:12 says: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, (REMEMBER THAT!!! THAT IS WHAT GOD SAYS YOU ARE!!) clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” We are to clothe ourselves with the attitudes and attributes of Christ! Every morning as we get dressed, literally as if we were putting on clothes, let’s put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. WE are Holy and DEARLY loved. We are to love others as we are loved by Christ! When our friends try to tell us that the only way to be popular is to be mean to that new girl, put on kindness. When we are sick of sharing and waiting our turn, put on gentleness and patience! Treat others like Christ wants to treat them through you!

We have learned how to conquer the mirror each and every day. We now know that any voice inside our head that is contrary to Scripture is from Satan and we can tell it where to go through His Word. We are now listening to TRUTH about whom and whose we really are. We are physically dressed in a way that reflects God’s indwelling presence in our life and we have put on HIS attitude. Time to go out that door and walk in the confidence that we are women who are unconditionally loved!! Remember the list at the beginning? You have nothing to prove! Believe God. Only by believing who you truly are… who Christ sees when he looks at you, will you ever be 100% at peace.

Running Free of Guilt...

Luke 22:59-62,  John 20:1-4

Peter messed up... big time!  The Lord told Peter that he was going to deny him three times before dawn.  Peter vehemently denied it.  However, Jesus was right.  Peter did deny him and on the third time the Gospel of Luke tells us they made eye contact.  He went away weeping, overwhelmed with grief.

Fast forward to three days later.  Mary Magdalene comes and tells the disciples that Jesus' body was no longer in the tomb.  Peter and John run to the tomb.  Did you catch that?  Peter ran to Jesus.

Peter understood the character of His Lord.  Peter understood forgiveness.  I am not sure if I would have run to the tomb that day.  Unfortunately, too many times in my life I allow feelings of guilt and failure to keep me from running back to Jesus.  I forget that the Bible tells me that when I confess my sins He is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).  I forget that as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed transgression from me (Psalm 103:12).  I forget that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  Instead I allow Satan to beat me up with my sin over and over.  Guilt washes over me and keeps me from the One who died to set me free from sin and death (Romans 8:2)!

Salvation is a free gift.  There is nothing we can do to earn it, we just have to accept it and believe it (Romans 6:23 / Romans 10:9).  Forgiveness works the same way.  We don't earn it, but Jesus's death on the cross freely brings it!  We have to accept his forgiveness, believe we have it, and then MOVE ON!  What if Peter never accepted Christ's forgiveness and moved on to become the rock of the early church?  What if David never accepted God's forgiveness for his sin of murder and adultery and never moved on to be a King that honored God and ruled Israel?  What if Moses never accepted God's forgiveness for his sin of murder and never went to lead God's people out of Israel?  What if Paul never accepted God's forgiveness for terrorizing and martyring the early church and never became one of the greatest missionaries of all time?

What if you never accept God's forgiveness and move on?  What will you never see HIM accomplish through your life?  Satan doesn't win when the war over your life when we sin.  However, we let him win when we wallow in guilt and become ineffective for the Kingdom of God!  Don't you know Jesus has the power to take your sin and turn it around for something good and for His glory? (Romans 8:28).

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."  Galatians 5:1

Run like Peter!  God is waiting with open arms!

The Holy Spirit Backfire!

Psalm 4:4-5 (Click on reference to read text)

I am ashamed to say I was lying awake in bed at 3am trying my hardest to come up with the best way to "zing" my husband... deliver the perfect sentence to convey enough conviction, guilt, and meanness to cause him to change a decision. I knew it wasn't right, but I was convinced that the Holy Spirit needed a little bit of help to manipulate my husband into doing what I wanted him to do. After two hours of rehearsing the perfect sentence, I was trying to go back to sleep. Since I was awake I started praying for those the Lord brought to mind, and Psalm 4 popped into my head. My mother has always taught me to read any Scripture the Lord brings to mind, so I reached over and grabbed my Bible. This is what I read:

"In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD."

It was I who got "zinged!" I was about to sin in my anger, I was not going to be silent and I was even lying in my bed! I immediately knew what I needed to do: "be silent... and trust in the Lord." Instead of trying to come up with a way to manipulate my husband into agreeing with me, I decided to trust the Lord and allow Him to work in the heart of my husband or in my heart... whichever one needed to be changed.

Please tell me I am not the only one! Have you ever had a situation where you were trying to play the Holy Spirit and change people instead of allowing the Lord to do His work? The Bible says, "When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise" (Prov 10:19). The Bible also tells us to trust in the Lord and HE will make your righteousness shine like the dawn and the justice of your cause like the noonday sun (Ps 37:4-6).

The Holy Spirit doesn't need our help. Let's lay down our need to control, our need to get our own way, and just be silent and trust in Him.

The Sweetest Sound I know...

Leviticus 16 (Click on reference to read text)

"...and behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split." Matthew 27:51

You probably do not describe the sound of cloth ripping as beautiful... especially if you are a mother of small children! However, the sound of the veil being torn in two was the most beautiful sound of all time.

Leviticus 16 is a great reminder of the gift we have been given as we celebrate the Easter season. Before Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, we were not able to access the Father anytime we wanted (vs. 1-2), we could not come to God empty handed (vs. 3), we had to go through great ceremony before we could even enter His presence (vs. 4). Then, after all of this, only the high priest could enter the presence of God. In order to receive forgiveness of sins, a blood sacrifice of an animal, performed in a certain way and (vs. 11-28) at a certain time (vs. 29-31) had to be made.

Christ ripped open the veil. After His death on the cross, the Holy of Holies (symbolizing the presence of God) was available to everyone who called Jesus Lord. He became our high priest so that we could approach the throne of grace in confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Heb 4:16). In Christ's death on the cross, we find forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-22), and no longer condemnation (Ro 8:1). Christ calls us to come, just as we are and He promises to give us rest (Matt 11:28).

Are you going through great ceremony to approach God? Are you hoping that you are doing things the right way in order to win his favor? Are you afraid to approach God whenever you want or need? Do you know rest? If not, you need to know Christ! He is the answer. We can offer Him nothing, yet He offers us everything (John 3:16, 2 Cor 5:21, Rom 5:8-9, Ro 10:9-10). You are imperfect (Ro 3:23) but Christ, in His perfect love, made the way for our salvation (John 14:6).

I am sure this is not new truth for you. It is not for me. However, in this time of year, as we are surrounded with bunnies, eggs and candy, let's remember the sound of cloth ripping. The sound of freedom. The sound of redemption. The veil was torn so that I can approach my Father, just as I am, and live in His presence.

Allowing Me to Fall...

Luke 15:11-24 (Click on reference to read text)

My daughter was on the patio of my husband's store when all of a sudden, she started running straight towards the parking lot and a moving car. I yelled for her to freeze, but she kept running, completely oblivious to the danger. As I took off after her, I watched as she tripped and fell flat on her face a few feet from the road. She was hurt, but she was alive. I was never so glad to watch my daughter fall. I explained to her, "Jesus loves you so much, He let you fall. You were running straight into danger, and although it hurt to fall, it hurt a lot less than running into a car. We need to thank Jesus for your fall." As I prayed with my little girl, I too began to thank Jesus for the times in my life He let me fall to save me from even greater danger.

The prodigal son is a story we are all familiar with, yet it is also something that each of us can relate to. How many of us have wanted to go our own way and do what we want to do? We may have been more subtle in our rebellion, but we have all chosen to do life in our own way. Our rebellion could be a calendar out of control and being too busy, making work your number one priority, or trusting in a relationship and not in the Lord. He may yell for us to freeze. Send us warning signs, but sometimes He must make us fall. It could be health problems that force us to slow down, job loss, or the end of a relationship. It may hurt at the time. Your heart may be broken, you may be confused, or you may feel abandoned. However, if you really take a close look, you may just see the Lord directing your steps to much better, and safer, places.

The most amazing thing about our Heavenly Father is that when we fall, we can run back to Him. Just like the father of the prodigal son, He is watching and as soon as I turn towards home, He runs to me and and embraces me. He is ready to run to you too. In what ways are you being rebellious and doing life your own way? Stop justifying your actions, and run home. He is waiting with arms open wide!

For further reading: Psalm 103:12, 1 John 1:9, 1 John 3:1, Proverbs 15:16, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 3:1-26

Tuning Into Him...

Revelation 9:1-21 (Click on reference to read text)

This passage is heavy. Can you imagine the headlines during this time period? I know they would not say, "Attention all Believers: You are currently living in Revelations 9. Take heart, God is in control!" This sounds silly, but it is true. Prophecy coming to pass will never be portrayed with a Biblical World View in the media. This is why it is important to train our eyes and ears to recognize the hand of God in every situation, world-wide or personal.

Through the limits he places on His judgement, believers can read this chapter and see the overwhelming gracious hand of God. Instead of seeing the agony of allowing people to be tortured for five months, we see the mercy of God in giving them more time to repent! Instead of looking at the 1/3 of mankind that is killed, we see the grace in God allowing 2/3 of mankind to survive even in their extreme rebellion! No matter how bad it gets on Earth, we know that is nothing compared to the agony and eternity of Hell.

In order to run the race marked out for us as believers, we must believe and live by the truth that God is gracious and good no matter what the circumstances around us look like. That one truth of who God is must permeate our belief system so deeply that nothing we see, hear, or feel could change it. Through this chapter in Revelation, we begin to understand that it is not "how can a loving God allow people to suffer," but "how long-suffering and loving God is that He will go to extreme measures to cause people to turn to Him!"

God will take extreme measures in our life as well. As Christians, we too can be rebellious within individual circumstances. If we take a close look at our life during our own times of judgement, we can see the grace and mercy of God within those situations. Often times, upon close examinations, we discover that we have placed ourself in a bad situation that will bring us ruin or have allowed habits to form in our life that will ultimately hurt ourselves or those around us that we love. God loves us too much to leave us! He cares more about eternity than our present comfort, and will go to extreme measures, if need be, to bring us back to Him! Are there any areas in your life that you need to repent of? How will you respond: like the men in vs. 6 will you long for the end/death of the circumstance or will you return to the Lord?

Take a close look at your circumstances. Train your eyes to look for and see the hand of God in your life. Just as we can see the ultimate control and sovereignty of God through every verse of Revelation 9, he is sovereign and in control of your life now. It is only when we practice and train our eyes to see the movements of His hands, will we recognize His character no matter how the circumstances look around us. He is in control. He is sovereign. He is gracious and He is good.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things... put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Phil 4:8-9

Grace to Sin...

Matthew 18:23-35 (Please click on reference to read text).

We Christians love to throw around the word Grace. It is clear why. Grace is the entire crux of our Christian faith. It is what sets Christianity apart from every other world religion that teaches "self-salvation" through good works. We accurately realize that there is nothing inherently good about us that could lead to our salvation. In fact, one of the first verses we probably memorize is Ephesians 2:8, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." However, do we ever use His grace as our excuse?

This story immediately makes our religious and moral fibers indignant. How dare the man receive such unmerited mercy and grace only to use it against another for a much smaller crime?! Many of us would be more than happy to execute judgement on such a harsh and unfeeling man. However, Hebrews 4:12 tells us that "the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword... able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." If we allow His Word to pierce our hearts, we would be ashamed to realize that just as this man was so little affected by the grace shown him, we do the same to our Lord.

How many times have you not shared the Gospel with someone, knowing in the back of your mind that God would forgive you? How many times have you spoken harshly with your family because you knew that you were "covered by the blood of Christ"? How many times have you slept in and not gotten up to be with the Lord, putting Him first, because you know that He will be there whenever you get around to it?

These are tough questions! These are the questions I have been asking myself over and over this past week. You see Grace is not free! It was freely given to us, but it was not free. It cost the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ HIS LIFE! The cost was great. Grace is not free. We must begin to stop looking at the Grace of God from a "freely given" stand point and more from a "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all" (Ro 8:1-4, 32).

Getting up at 6 am to spend time with the Lord becomes a lot easier in light of the fact that Jesus died on the cross for me! Dying to yourself, not claiming your rights, and speaking with love to your family becomes a lot easier when compared to the cross. Sharing Christ with that divine appointment becomes a lot easier in light of the cross. When we accurately picture God's grace, we will respond through a lifestyle of worship and obedience!

Where do you stand? Will you commit today to not use grace as an excuse to keep sinning (Ro 6:1-2)? Will you begin today to no longer focus on the free gift of His grace to us, but on what that free gift cost our Savior?

Praise the Lord: "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:19). Thank you for the cross, Lord. May I never forget the cost!