Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings, 9 from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.
God will always show us who we are in Him, and He does it with authentic love. He may want to bring some corrections that will help our character, but those chastisements, admonitions, and instructions will be done in love, all the while keeping us aware that we are the apple of His eye. Psalm 17:8a Keep me as the apple of Your eye. On the other hand, Satan will always reflect a distorted version of who we are. He will make sure we always see the ugly flaws and baseness of our human condition. He will use reflective mirrors like those in the carnival funhouse to reflect a deceptive view of ourselves and show how distorted and dysfunctionally warped we can be. Without mercy, he will point out every imaginary flaw the mirrors are falsely reflecting. The devil’s funhouse mirrors are no fun at all. They are designed to distract us from the love of God and steal our rightful position as the Lord’s kings and priests. Rev. 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Our natural tendency to believe a lie comes easily to our hearts. The statistics on how many positive thoughts or affirmations it takes to overcome and override a negative self-deprecating thought and painful emotion are seven positive affirmations. However, in the past few years, statistics have highlighted much greater hardships that people face in accepting themselves. Counsellors and psychologists suggest that it takes more effort to overcome negativity, and that seven to sixteen positive thoughts are needed to offset the weight of one negative thought and break through the heaviness they feel. This sounds like a full-time job to replace the head trash living in people’s minds. No wonder people feel overwhelmed by the ordinary events of life.
The Word of God admonishes us to build our faith in His Word so that our minds can be renewed to hear what God is saying to our hearts. The Lord’s Word will also help us distinguish between the Lord’s voice and that of the devil, who lies continuously. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. The Bible has many instructions on how to renew our minds and spot the funhouse mirrors placed in front of us that reflect a distorted version of life. God asks us to believe who He says we are and to voice who God says we are. One of the most important assurances that God wants us to know and declare loudly is that we are redeemed. Psalm 107:2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Let, allow, and permit those who have been redeemed in the blood of Jesus boldly say. “I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb! I have been paid for in full by Jesus my Lord!”
God says again, let, allow, and permit my people to declare that they are strong in the Lord. Joel 3:10b Let the weak say, I am strong. We know that God says to be strong in the Lord and in His power and might. Eph 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. The question becomes, How can I be strong in the Lord?” The answer is, put on the armour of God, and declare that we are strong in Him who has already won the eternal battle. The Lord repeatedly tells us to replace the image that sin and iniquities have caused us to think of ourselves, and replace that flawed image with the strength and power of His love for us, and believe who He says we are. The Word says that faith in what God thinks and believes of us comes by hearing His Word over and over again in all manner of life’s situations.
Another way that God helps us enforce the image that God has for us is by writing down the vision that God has given us so that we can read it and declare it by faith. Hab. 2:2 Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. Write down what God has given you to do. Write down what stirs your heart for the kingdom of God. Write down what you have gleaned in prayer so that your path may be straight and you may walk it in the confidence of God’s holiness. Psalm 119: 105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Do not be afraid to write down what you see and hear what the monster in you is saying and doing. Most of these feelings and thoughts are also reflections from the devil’s funhouse mirrors. Get all those terrible thoughts out of your being by writing them down and pleading the blood of Jesus on the page, and you will see that once those thoughts are on paper, they become paper tigers.
Jesus instructs us to speak to the mountains in our lives and command them to be cast into the sea. Mark 11:23 Truly I say to you⁺ that whoever shall say to this mountain, ‘Be taken away and be cast into the sea,’ and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that what he says happens, it will be done for him. Where does the confidence of this kind of faith come from if we are believing the devil’s lies about ourselves? It must have been jaw-dropping for the disciples to hear such a statement and the confidence of faith. Jesus was saying, “With the love that God has for you and the depth to which you believe it, you can say to the obstructions in your life to be removed. Because, once we see the truth of God’s love, we will see that His love is much bigger than any mountain there is anywhere in this universe.” The choice is ours. See ourselves the way the devil reflects his lies upon us, or see ourselves in the fullness of God’s love. Choose wisely!
0 Comments