All who have been reading my blog for awhile know how much I love music. Growing up I developed a love for the oldies. I remember the first time I heard The Byrds sing Turn, Turn, Turn. I loved the song and then I learned something pretty amazing. This secular song was taken directly out of the Bible! Yep that's right, the song comes right out of Eccl 3:1-8.
The song was released during a time of war but it promoted peace. The last line of the song says; "A time for peace, I swear it's not too late." God's word declares that we are to seek peace and pursue it, we are to let it be the umpire of our lives (see Ps 34:14, 1 Pet 3:11, Col 3:15). I don't know about you but I don't always seek peace and pursue it. Often times I let the negative thoughts going through my mind get me in such a tizzy that I find it difficult to get back to a place of peace. Or I let my circumstances and situations rob me of peace because I only see the problem and not God's solution.
I seem to battle the same feelings of unworthiness, rejection, and unwantedness over and over again. Recently someone said something to me that made me think; they said I was constantly setting myself up to be rejected and maybe it was time I removed myself from some of those situations. Well I thought about that and prayed about it and I came to the conclusion that if I removed myself from everything where I felt rejected then I would never be able to leave the house, ever! I really did not want to become a hermit so I began seeking God to gain some victories for those areas in my life that were continually causing me hurt.
I am so thankful for those who have walked this path before me and who provide me with additional tools I need to walk in greater levels of freedom. God first led me to Beth Moore. Beth is great in helping woman discover all they were created to be. I began reading her book So Long Insecurity. I'm not far but a line in the very beginning made me think, "this woman has read my mail." "We're going to let the truth scream louder to our souls than the lies that have infected us." This had been the cry of my heart to God. I wanted the truth to become more real to me than the lies I have been believing.
God also took me to Dawna Desilva. If you don't know her she runs the Sozo Ministry at Bethel and her messages always speak truth to me of who I am. In her message on Hope she said something to the effect that God's Kingdom always expands or adds to. When you see yourself through the lense of rejection, unwantedness, unworthiness, etc than you are dealing with lack and that is not a Kingdom mindset. We need to place our hope in Jesus and it is through Him we can do all things.
She gives a great illustration in this message of how she wanted opal earrings for Christmas one year but her husband was always saying they couldn't afford things. God had been working with her to take down her walls she was hiding behind to avoid being hurt so she told her husband for Christmas she wanted the earrings. Of course the first words out of his mouth were we can't afford it!! When we are trying to walk in freedom the enemy will alway always always try and hold us back!!! Anyway christmas came and she opened her gifts and no opal earrings. She was getting more and more upset because she knew that she had stepped out as God had said, made herself vulnerable, and was not going to receive the desire of her heart. Well she came to the last gift which was a box inside a box inside a box, etc. Finally in the last box was her desired opal earrings but by the time she opened them she could not enjoy the gift because she had allowed all the negative thoughts to control her emotions!!!
Whether our desire is opal earrings or something else when we allow our self to believe that is not for us or could never happen to us then we look at the situation through a lens of lack instead of seeing the situation through the eyes of God. The lens of lack can rob us from the blessings that God has made available to us. One thing I have to continually remind myself of is that His every thought and intention towards us is for good. This is an easy truth to grasp but only if you don't see yourself through the lens of lack.
Gungor's song Beautiful Things was on my heart this morning, especially the line "He makes beautiful things out of us." So this is the reminder I will leave you with. God has made you beautiful, you are more than enough, and you are blessed and highly favored. Don't allow lack to hold you back! Don't allow the lies of negative thoughts rob you of God's best for you. Allow His truth to become so loud you cannot hear the lies anymore.
My desire and hope is that what I am learning may help you also. It may feel so hard and impossible when you are in the process but know dear ones that God is there with you holding your hand and seeing you through the process. Don't live in despair but begin to allow God's hope to invade your being. Jesus understands everything you are going through because He experienced it first and His live on earth gave us an example to follow.
