Self-Talk 5

Don't we just love to appear important (even if we're not?)? Don't we love being in control? And aren't we "happiest" when we hang out in the inner circle of people, if we ever do? BUT, how do those loves affect our relationships with God and others? It's a good question to ask ourselves, especially when we spend a fair amount of time wishing for things we can't have, like importance, control and popularity.

What does Ephesians 2:6 tell us we already have? Look it up, and you'll find that we are already seated in the heavenly realms with Christ, if we abide in Him. Hmm, looks like importance is taken care of . . . and popularity (what's closer to the inner circle than the Trinity?) . . . and do we really need control when we understand that the Master and Creator of the universe has us in His care?

Now take a look at Philippians 2: Is there any encouragement with being united with Christ? Any comfort from His love? Any fellowship with His Spirit? Any tenderness and compassion? Is there? Wrestle with these questions if you need to . . . they are incredibly important to understand. And if you discover there is, then read on. And if there is any doubt in your mind about God's will for your life, you can rest here, in this passage. It begins with love, not mine but His. And it flows from His encouragement, comfort, fellowship, tenderness and compassion. So, as Shelly Beach says, "take captive your thoughts and wrap them around the truth of the Word of God."

Give thanks

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name! (Psalm 103)

For what do you bless the Lord this holiday? And please don't say "Black Friday"!
Add a comment under anonymous telling us what you are especially grateful for this year.

I'll start: For the Lord's breathtaking love for me, for good authors that challenge me, for earthly comforts and good friends, for fellowship and teaching at a remarkable church, and for my luscious family.

Your turn.

Jean

Self-Talk 4

Here's a piece of self-talk that I am well-familiar with: self-importance. I love to think that I am important in the great or even small scheme of things. It may be my desire to put others down so I look better. It may be wanting the coach to play my child more often than he does. It may even be using the spiritual gifts God has given me to create an image for myself. How insidious Satan's lies are to our fallen minds and hearts. Shelly Beach calls it "stepping into the abyss of self". So true.

How do you promote yourself? Why do you do it? Isn't it interesting how strong our desire is to promote ourselves and how weak to promote our neighbors? Remember the Pharisees. They loved the greetings in the marketplace, they loved being seen praying, they loved practicing their righteousness for all to see. Why? Because they didn't understand that the better reward comes from the Lord of heaven and earth, who sees in secret; they thought the best rewards were the (perceived) accolades of their peers. Surely they didn't understand Psalm 8, which they must have known, and which reminds us of our smallness and God's graciousness in promoting us:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man
that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower
than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory
and honor (!!!) (exclamation points and emphasis mine).

Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession (1 Peter 2:9, emphasis mine). Now that's a promotion I can handle, one that does not require me to perform perfectly, look good, say the right things, even wear the right clothes and makeup. I did not earn it. Jesus earned it for me. Let us, therefore, proclaim the excellencies of him who called us our of darkness into his marvelous light (v. 9b).

Jacob's son Joseph knew all about God's promotions. Reread his amazing story in Genesis 38-41 to see his perseverance in the face of profound rejections, first from his brothers, who sold him into slavery, and then from his employer Potiphar, who had him thrown into prison when falsely accused of impropriety, and finally from Pharaoh's cupbearer, who promised to remember Joseph to Pharoah and promptly forgot. For thirteen years, Joseph served God without self-promotion, and "the Lord was with him, and showed him steadfast love" (39:21) and eventually promoted him to second in command in Egypt. This is the God we serve. These are the excellencies we must proclaim.

Self-Talk 3

Why do we care about what we say to ourselves? you may be asking. Isn't this just a bit too introspective? I don't want to focus so much on myself and my thoughts. We care because what we are saying may be lies. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Really? Well, what does God say? In Lamentations 3, we read:
Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!
Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
We have transgressed and rebelled . . . "
And Paul challenges us to test ourselves to see whether we are "in the faith". (2 Corinthians 13:5) Do we walk in faith, or in the lies we love to recite to ourselves?--- lies like "God doesn't really care about me, or He would . . . " or "If I just pray more, God will . . . " or "Obviously God is blessing her life more because she is so much better than me at . . . " The lies really go on and on, and are unique to each of us.

And if we believe Satan's lies to Eve that God is lying, keeping things from us, and impotent to fulfill His promises to us, then we will respond with power, self-protection, self-promotion and positioning ourselves to best advantage. If we don't take care of ourselves, who will? Surely God can't be trusted.

Now I know none of you would actually say those words, but how much of what we tell ourselves daily demonstrates that we don't trust Him? Examine yourself, to see whether you are in the faith, if you are believing what God has said about you and to you, if you believe that Christ's death changes everything. As Elyse Fitzpatrick says:
We won't value or cherish Him as we should until we openly and freely embrace our
wretchedness and our utter inability to reform ourselves. Only then will we fall freely into
His arms of grace and there joyfully exalt the salvation He has purchased with His blood.

Let's begin there. More tomorrow.

Jean

Self-Talk 2

How's your self-talk? Are you noticing it more? Which of these temptations are you most likely to give in to: gagging God, opposing, outwitting, or equaling God? I'm actually pretty good at all of them! And what is the outcome in my life? The desire for Power, Self-protection, Self-promotion, and Position. My family knows it so well. As do my co-workers.

Our desire for power manifests itself not only in our fetish to control things, but in our anxiety for people to be like us; we judge and condemn and scorn people, yes even our friends, who do things differently than we do, who look and talk differently, who believe and live their beliefs differently than us. Our craving for power is so misdirected, for as we see in Ephesians 3:16-19, God has already given us power for the most important thing:
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

As Shelly Beach says in her book on self-talk, this is what should drive our thirst for power, the life-changing power of Jesus available through the Holy Spirit. Isn't it amazing that we have already been given the only power that matters, the power to know and understand God's stunning love for us?

When we read Genesis 3, we see how our first parents attempted, in vain, to protect themselves after they had turned from God's Word to them: blame, shame, covering themselves, hiding from God. And we laugh when we see how Aaron justified his actions in the encounter with the Golden Calf: "So I said to [the Israelites], 'Let any who have gold take it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf." Really? we say. And then we run off and fashion our own golden calves. We try desperately to defend our characters and protect our "good" names, don't we? I try to look better than I am by telling half-truths about myself, by hiding behind my silences and "good deeds". All in the name, not of my holy and gracious God, but in the name of my own pride. In what ways do you think and act protectively?

Now look at the early church as they were being flogged and persecuted for speaking publicly about Jesus: "Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." (Acts 5:41-42) Not a fig leaf in the pack. All exposing themselves to the rage of the authorities in order to obey God and glorify the name of His Son. Oh, that we would be so pride-less!

"Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! (Lamentations 3:40)

Thoughts?
Jean

Self-Talk

I thought I'd post some thoughts from our Sunday School class yesterday on "The Seduction of Self-Talk" for those who couldn't attend, and for those who did and would like some notes. We looked at where sinful self-talk began, right where all sin began, in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, we see Satan offering several new thoughts to Eve's unsullied mind:

• doubt ("Did God really say you are not to eat of the tree?")
• dismay that God might have lied to her ("Surely you will not die!)
• and, along with it, hope that there are no consequences to our sin
• complaints that God is keeping something good from her ("For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened")
• and a wild expectation that she can be like God ("and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.")

Yes, truly she ate and gained a knowledge of good and evil, one that would have been better left unknown. In reality, in her knowing she became a slave: to her passions, her hungers, her emotions, "passing [her] days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." (Titus 3:3) And where was Satan after she ate? He had slithered away to craft the next part of his plan: making her awash in guilt and remorse. Isn't it just like our enemy to make us disobey the One who loves us immeasurably, and then to mercilessly beat us up when we do?

And where was God? He was not ignorant of these wicked goings-on. There was an animal being slain at that moment, blood being shed, that the nakedness of our newly-shamed first parents might be covered. For "mercy triumphs over judgment"! (James 2:13b)

Which of your enemy's whispers resonates through your life? Are you doubting God's goodness to you? Do you think God is keeping some good thing from you? Do you whine about the hardness of His good plans for your life? Do you think there will be no consequences to your actions? We must examine ourselves and see where we are believing lies in our deepest thoughts.

Then run to the cross to deposit those lies at our Savior's feet, for Scripture says that "they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony . . . " (Revelation 12:11). Satan wants to draw us away from the Savior's love for us by accusing us day and night. We must be diligent to repel him by running to the very Love from which he is keeping us. Elyse Fitzpatrick offers this rebuke to the enemy: "I do sin and sin grievously, but Jesus Christ was slain as a perfect lamb in my place. Thank you for reminding me of my sin because, although it grieves me, it also reminds me to love [my Jesus] more."

We repent at the foot of the Cross, and then lift our voices in praise to the living God who has said loud and clear: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

Blessed are those who dwell in Your house, ever singing Your praise! (Psalm 84)