Throughout our lives we have been wounded. These wounds carry messages that are lies about us, God, and other people. Because we believe them to be true, they color our lives and influence our behaviors. The challenge before us as Christians is to identify those lies and replace them with truth – God’s truth. Don’t just invite Christ into the house of your life for a sit in your living room. Invite Him to help clean house! He knows where the closets need cleaning!
You are Holy, Chosen, Royalty, The Apple of His Eye, Forgiven, Free, Adopted, Heirs, Victorious, Competent, Complete, Worthy of Love and Respect, Unique in Giftedness, a Delight, Loved by God.
Would you use other words to define yourself? Negative words? Satan spoke words of deception and lies to Eve in the garden. To whom are you listening today? Meditate on the Truth about whom God says you are – not what your spouse, your friends, or what you say about yourself. Write the words God speaks about you on a piece of paper and put them on your mirror. Every time you look at yourself say, “I am ….” and read the list out loud. Practice calling yourself what God calls you! The words we use to define ourselves carry a great deal of power; in fact our words are an expression of what we believe about ourselves.
“For God so LOVED the world that He gave his only begotten son …” John 3:16. How many times have we heard or said that verse, and not really believed it? Do you question your worth? If you were to believe this verse, what would be your worth? Do you realize that it was His love for you that sent Him to the cross? Christ came, not to condemn us, but to save us from all condemnation including self-condemnation. You ARE NOT worthless, but a person of great value. God’s value and love for us is not based on our looks, possessions, accomplishments or performance. He loves us because we are His and nothing we do will ever alter that.
An Invitation:
Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Have you ever considered what are some of the things you are weary and heavy laden about? What do you do to ease the weight? Has it been helpful? Are you willing to try something different? Consider the above scripture. In it Jesus invites us to come to Him with those difficult and weighty things, and in doing so He promises us rest. Why is it so difficult for us to trust His invitation? To trust when we cannot see, hear or touch is such a difficult thing, since from the start of life we learn to trust our senses. From a human perspective, it is not only impossible to trust what you cannot see, hear, or touch; it is a bit irrational.
Hebrew 11:1 helps us to understand what we might consider irrationality, when it says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When we read this Scripture we think to ourselves, “But those were those men and women of old who were in some spiritual way stronger than us” To deal with such an impossibility, James 5:17-18 offer us an encouraging promise when he writes, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly, that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” What makes this Scripture so encouraging is the description of Elijah’s nature–“like ours”— Doubtful at times, yet humble enough to risk ridicule, and we see that at the earnestness of his prayer the heavens were open.
Is it our fear to be thought of as foolish one of our hindrances in trusting the Lord? Is humility one of the keys to open heaven’s door? In Matthew 11:29, the Lord not only invites us to take His yoke, but in doing so He also promises that we would learn how, “to be gentle and humble.” What is in these two simple phrases that the impossible becomes possible, removing the weariness of the human soul? Could it be that a gentle soul is capable or recognizing his/her limitations and to humbly bend the neck in surrender for an exchange of yoke with the One who offers rest for the soul? If we think about the weigh we carry, most of it is due to our pride and unwillingness to accept our limitations and humbly ask for help when we need. It is not wonder the Lord also invite us to learn from Him “gentleness and humility” Only the humble can gently bow low the neck and bend the knee without shame.
For a moment close your eyes and picture being in the presence of Jesus bending your neck for Him to take your yoke and give you His, remember His is light and easy. How does it feel to have such weight removed from you?
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