“Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change. What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change, is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change.”
-Richard Rohr
Quote from the book Crash the Chatterbox by Steven Furtick
Before I elaborate I must say that I am really enjoying this book! I highly suggest picking up a copy.
Something deeply rooted in my mind since my childhood is that I am never going to be holy enough for God. I could do more for him, I could be better. I am never on the right track, never paying enough attention to him, never reading enough of my bible, never worshiping him enough to get to that place of true certainty that I am loved by him, and he is pleased with me. I am just down right not good enough to be called a child of God because I just can’t seem to get this whole Child of God, Jesus follower down! I actually feel guilt and condemnation when I go days without picking up my bible. Then I think, well now I have to start all the way over to get back in his good graces.
How stupid is this!
Progress with your walk with Christ comes little by little. We have an enemy who is pushing back against us the whole way. He wants us to have none of the victories Christ already died for us to have. We are overcomers, we are saved, we are healed, we are made righteous in his sight through the blood of his one and only begotten Son, Jesus. We are forgiven, we are loved unconditionally, and his mercy and grace is new every day.
Joyce Meyer says it best: “I may not be where I need to be, but thank God I am not where I use to be!” Progress
Jesus already paid the price for my sins, past, present, and future. So why I am always fighting, waging war within myself, within my mind to try to get to him. To believe this is really true! Why do I waiver in my faith. In my heart I believe with every ounce of my being. I believe I am free, I believe I am saved. My mind however is just always being attacked with negativity, doubt.
Maybe you struggle with this mindless chatter as well? These lies that keep playing over and over and over in your mind. You did this and this today, God is so not pleased. Whelp, maybe tomorrow after you pray and read your bible for an hour you will be okay again. I am not saying that we don’t have to repent and ask for forgiveness of our sins, of course we do. These feelings of guilt and condemnation linger way after confession and asking for forgiveness.
Satan loves to make us believe that getting to God is a LOT OF WORK, BUT HE IS A LIAR.
Well actually it was a lot of Work for Jesus, He took our place and atoned for our sins. He did the hard part for us all, so that we could be free and live in his Victory over Death!
Steven Furtick knocked it out of the park when he elaborated on the first chatter told to Eve. It was actually an ah ha moment in my mind, and I want to share it with you because maybe you struggle like me, maybe this truth will give you some hope and a fresh start to your faith, and your stupid thoughts bouncing around up there!
I am going to take this straight out of Chapter 4 of Crash the Chatterbox.
This is after the fruit has been eaten and now Adam and Eve are hiding from God in the Garden.
“Yes, the serpent is a master of asking questions to insinuate things about God’s intentions: “Did God really say….” Thankfully, God counters those questions with a question of His own: “Where are you?”
God doesn’t ask because He needs the information. He knows His way around this garden. He asks so that Adam can locate himself in relation to his God. So the hiding can stop.
Adam’s answer is straightforward enough: “I head you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked: so I hid.”
And God’s next question is my favorite of all. It is the ultimate counter-question, and it’s the source of our separation from God: “Who told you that you were naked?”
Implicit in God’s question “Who told you that?” is at least part of the answer: Because it sure wasn’t Me.”
Steven Furtick Crash the Chatterbox
Those words across my iPad pierced my soul. It knotted my stomach and then released tears down my eyes. Really it was a release of bondage rooted with my doubts. “Because it sure wasn’t Me.”
In a few days we start a new year. I might have made the mistake of not keeping my eyes on God for the past few weeks, but He didn’t go anywhere.
Our Father is a patient and steadfast Father. HE LOVES us, and that LOVE for us is what continues to change me. As his child, I must do what Paul tells us, keep on pressing on towards the prize!
I am not hiding from my guilt of not being a perfect human being. No, instead I am walking by faith and not by sight, and I am clinging on to the Hope and the Promise of the Word’s spoken in Romans 5:
Peace and Hope
5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
The TRUTH ALWAYS REVIELS the LIES!
Because of His blood, I am good enough, not by my acts, not by my deeds, not by my success or by lack of any shortcomings, or because I did or didn’t read my bible this morning. Because of my belief and my faith, and because I have been saved by Christ, God’s Holy Spirit is always with me, always helping me, convicting me to change, because I AM LOVED and so are you my friend!
Now go back and read the title quote again. 🙂
SMASH THE LIES AND SMASH THE STUPID LYING CHATTERBOX!
Love and Hugs,
Leigh Leigh
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