Stop Lying to Yourself

Stop Lying to Yourself 

     Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

            It is not the words outside your head but the ones inside. It is not the water outside the boat but the water in the boat that sinks it.

            When you wake up in the morning, do you lie to yourself by such statements as, “I am tired” or “I am hungry” or even “I am depressed”? These are very damaging thoughts. It is not only untrue (for they are only feelings) but it adds the  name of God to the lie. You may feel tired or hungry or even depressed but that is no who or what you are.

            You are not your feelings and Feelings are not who you are.

            If you speak the truth you become free to help yourself. So what can you say, using God’s name, that will help sustain you in your daily struggles? How about, “I am a child of God” (1 John3:1&2)? You may not feel like a child of God but that is just a feeling and not who you are. Try, “I am a winner” (Romans 8:37). I really like this one, “I am a friend of Jesus” (John 15:15) We need never to feel friendless!

            Remember, you are not your feelings and your feelings are not you!

                        God has made you more than that. 

How I must always recall
            That should I stumble or should I fall,
I need not define myself by what I did then
            For God has claimed me from way back when. 

I came to God who sent His Son
            To pay for the debt that I had run.
Thus day by day I find anew
            How God, himself, will see me through. 

How like the melting of the winter snow,
            Feelings come and feelings go.
Relationships will never change of fade

            For God, himself, will give me aid 

When my life has ended, my race run,
            Because of the work of His dear Son,
I know that my feelings may leave me numb
            But He’ll greet me with the words “Well done!”

Pastor George VanSandt is a Christian counselor and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Amos 6-9; Psalm 146; Proverbs 27

Compass Pointers: God is often silent when we prefer that he speak, and he interrupts us when we prefer that he stay silent. His ways are not our ways. To live with the sacred God of creation means that we conduct our lives with a God who does not explain himself to us. It means that we worship a God who is often mysterious - too mysterious to fit our formulas for better living. It means that God is not our best friend, our secret lover or our good-luck charm. He is God. Craig Barnes

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 26:28; Level 2: Proverbs 26:17-25

Anchored to the Rock: Prayerlessness is a sin against God and it is a sin that can find no excuse.  E. F. Hallock