Have you ever believed this…?
I have to be strong. I mean I have to be emotionally strong for a loved one that is emotionally weak. I have to be there for them, I can help them if I just stay strong.
Or
I have parents that their marriage is struggling and I have to be strong for them…if we work really hard we can help keep their marriage together.”
Or
Perhaps you have a struggling marriage but “you know we got to be strong for our kids.”
I have to be emotionally strong; even though on the inside you feel vulnerable there is no way you are going to let anyone know...why do it? Because we have bought the lie (Inspired by Craig Groeschel)
It could be the feeling you have to keep everything together in your finances, in your career. How about in your faith….I have to stay strong people are looking and I have to look strong to keep up the illusion.
It is a lie we often believe. I've been there; I can put the game face on as good as you can. Sometimes, although, you really can’t fake it….like when I took a weight lifting class in college with a bunch of football players. I put on way more weight than I could really lift (what they did many reps of I did a few of) and did the 1, 2, and then 10 when someone walked by, and would be puking after class. I got pride...I don't want them to see weakness even though it was pretty obvious.
The truth is that our strength is limited. God made us that way so that we might learn to depend more on Him and His unlimited power. It is pretty frustrating doing life out of our own limited strength like cutting with a dull saw. We get worn out, tired, hopeless.
Look deeper in Isaiah 40:30-31- Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Notice it says “even youth” get faith, young men "utterly fall," in the original language the point is made that these are the best of best. As opposed to those who are past their prime; they are in the strongest part of life and even they get tired and stumble and fall.
However those who wait on the Lord will mount up with wings like eagles. I learned that eagles even though about 12 pounds in weight can carry well over its own body weight even carrying baby lambs. They are able to spot rabbits two miles away and with their 7 foot wing span they reach speeds of over 150 mph and have the ability to dive at speeds of 200 mph. Eagles have been seen almost motionless in hurricane force winds. What amazing strength…God’s Word says we can have that strength but it doesn’t come from us.
The apostle Paul learned this. It wasn’t about him being stronger, trying harder, being better, caring more. At one point he was bothered so much by something he begged God to take it away, yet God did not. Instead God told him “My grace is sufficient for you” and then he learned “my power is made perfect in (can you believe it) weakness.” Paul learned when he is weak, broken, vulnerable, and dependent then he is strong.
He even makes a crazy statement “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” He goes on to say he delights in them (2 Corinthians 12:10), the language has the idea of thinking well of it or embracing the weakness. Paul embraced his weakness because he learned that when he did that a powerful strength from God would begin to work in him.
Are you embracing the weakness? Truth is “I don’t have to be strong” rather “when I am weak then I am strong.”
I have heard it said that lifeguards are trained to wait to rescue the drowning person until they quit trying to save themselves and just surrender otherwise they will be resisting the lifeguards help. When they surrender then they are able to give them the help they need. What a great picture of the power we can find as we learn to surrender. Some things you can’t fix, only God is going to be able to do it. His grace is sufficient, it’s exactly enough. His power specifically His explosive miraculous power is made perfect when we quit trying to do it on our own and become broken before Him. Let go of the façade of looking strong and embrace the weakness through brokenness. Reach out for His solutions and see if you won’t be finding a new strength that is not your own (see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Lies we believe
Do you ever feel trapped? Feel like there are things in your life pulling you down that you just can’t overcome? Emotions that are hard to control? Money issues that keep recurring no matter how much you make? Relational struggles you see over and over? Addictions that have you bound? Spiritual walls that keep you from developing a closer walk with the Lord?
Craig Groeschel (lifechurchtv) says if we continually believe a lie is true it will affect us as if it were true. Take an elephant it can pick up a one ton load with his huge trunk, but if you have been to a circus it stands quietly tied to a small wooden stake. How does this happen? As a young elephant, they are tied to a heavy chain chained to an immovable iron stake. The young elephant tries to break free but is not able to do it. As the elephant grows, no matter how strong he becomes he continues to believe he can’t move it. It is a great picture of the strongholds that can form in our minds keeping us stuck.
One of the lies of the enemy we so often believe is this, “This is just the way I am…I can’t change.” “I’ve tried it before and it didn’t work out, and so that proves that I can never ever change in this area of my life.”
We think…
“I have always had a bad marriage, I will always have one.” “I will never be able to trust people.”
“I am just not good with money…always in debt no matter how much I make, I have tried budgeting doesn’t work…tried saving, tried giving...always be that way.”
“I gamble all the time..can’t stop, I can’t stop drinking, smoking, watching the tube, eating that food, etc.”
“I have a bad attitude, always have, always will. My parents had one I guess I do to. I am just more of a critical person, negative.”
“Spiritually I get up but then I go back down..I see sincerity in other’s faith but I guess it will not be me”
And the lies go on and on and on….
God’s Word says:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
A stronghold is a castle, fortress or something on which one relies. The person even uses arguments and reasonings to fortify and defend their opinions or conclusion no matter how off based it is. Rick Renner writes that in the original language it came to be the very same Greek word used to describe a prison. In other words strongholds keep people or truth out (a fortress) or it’s like a prison that keeps insiders from getting out.
See in all cases the enemy is ringing out a lie- “this is just the way you are, you can’t change…and after believing it long enough- you are saying basically “God even you can’t change me… it is just the way I am.” What kind of bigger insult could we ever give to the one who made us than to say, “You don’t have the power to change me.” I have become a prisoner, locked by deception.
Good news is that the weapons we fight with are so powerful they are able to completely obliterate all these strongholds we often have. However, we have to build a strategy (the word warfare..actually means strategy). Before armies go out to battle they build a strategy for how they are going to win. The devil certainly has a strategy for deceiving people. So what is your strategy to win the war of chronic strongholds we battle?
Let me give you a cheesy acronym (but hopefully you can remember) to help you W.I.N.
W- Wallop the thoughts-
Remember the video game where you took a mallot and beat all the critters that popped up randomly.
He says you got to take every thought, thoughts you know that are inconsistent with God’s Word got to take it captive… beat it… wallop it. Anything not of God- we demolish it. See thoughts we allow will form the actions or choices we make.
So whenever your mind says, “I cannot overcome this addiction,” capture this thought. “I can’t stop this new habit. I’ve tried before, and I can’t do it, can’t stick with it…” Wallop or beat that thought. “Well, this is just the way …” Capture this thought. Make it obedient to Christ.
“I can do all things through Him, who gives me strength. I’m more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. I am an over comer. Not by my own power, but by the blood of the lamb and by the words of my testimony. “
We capture every wrong thought. Philippians 4:8, Paul was great at this. From a prison, waiting possible execution, do you think strongholds of discouragement, pessimism, anger might come. He said, “Whatever is true and noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,” what do you do? You think about, you think about such things. We capture all the wrong thoughts. We make them obedient to Christ.
I-Implement right words-
The tongue is powerful. Proverbs 18:21- “The tongue has the power of life and death…”
I am not advocating a name it, claim it or positive confession thing that is built on speaking right words to get what you want and not on the foundations of God’s Word. However, there is a powerful principle of life that can come from the tongue. Self fulfilling prophecies do often happen.
We got to capture the wrong thoughts, but we also need to implement right words built on His Word.
Psalm 19:14- Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you (acceptable in your sight) O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
The idea in this passage is consistency. Is what I am speaking consistent with what is on the inside? Or do I say one thing but on the inside it is totally different? Jesus said out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
“but, I just can’t change.” You are a prisoner locked in by deception. Jesus Christ came to set us free. He has unlocked the door and he wants to open it up to you. Meditate on the verses that empower- “I can do all through Christ…I am more than a conqueror…etc.”
Lastly…
N-No longer a victim.
Jesus didn’t pay the price so we are just stuck in these old fleshly patterns. He didn’t go through just some of the cross, just some of the suffering. He took all of it and overcame it. He destroyed the power of sin and death.
Often we make a truce with sin or partially deal with it…not Jesus He destroyed it. And the truth is….we are no longer victims, we can overcome strongholds through Christ…period.
David Wilkenson shares the story of a book from Thomas Costain’s history, The Three Edwards, described the life of Raynald III, a fourteenth-century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.” After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room. This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter. When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.”
Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year. . . a prisoner of his own appetite.
Paul says “to this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
Paul experienced a power that was beyond him. Avoid two extremes though. The first says “it is all about me…I got to try harder, be better, work harder.” The second is “I prayed about it, now God’s gotta do it.” No effort or labor or struggle on my part. Paul says it is His power working through us. I am doing my part and His strength is doing what I don’t have the ability to do.
I hope today you will refuse to except that you are just a victim. That your issues are impossible to deal with or experience victory. I pray you will draw near to Him and get His truth in you and overcome the lie “it’s just the way I am…can’t do anything about it.”
Craig Groeschel (lifechurchtv) says if we continually believe a lie is true it will affect us as if it were true. Take an elephant it can pick up a one ton load with his huge trunk, but if you have been to a circus it stands quietly tied to a small wooden stake. How does this happen? As a young elephant, they are tied to a heavy chain chained to an immovable iron stake. The young elephant tries to break free but is not able to do it. As the elephant grows, no matter how strong he becomes he continues to believe he can’t move it. It is a great picture of the strongholds that can form in our minds keeping us stuck.
One of the lies of the enemy we so often believe is this, “This is just the way I am…I can’t change.” “I’ve tried it before and it didn’t work out, and so that proves that I can never ever change in this area of my life.”
We think…
“I have always had a bad marriage, I will always have one.” “I will never be able to trust people.”
“I am just not good with money…always in debt no matter how much I make, I have tried budgeting doesn’t work…tried saving, tried giving...always be that way.”
“I gamble all the time..can’t stop, I can’t stop drinking, smoking, watching the tube, eating that food, etc.”
“I have a bad attitude, always have, always will. My parents had one I guess I do to. I am just more of a critical person, negative.”
“Spiritually I get up but then I go back down..I see sincerity in other’s faith but I guess it will not be me”
And the lies go on and on and on….
God’s Word says:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
A stronghold is a castle, fortress or something on which one relies. The person even uses arguments and reasonings to fortify and defend their opinions or conclusion no matter how off based it is. Rick Renner writes that in the original language it came to be the very same Greek word used to describe a prison. In other words strongholds keep people or truth out (a fortress) or it’s like a prison that keeps insiders from getting out.
See in all cases the enemy is ringing out a lie- “this is just the way you are, you can’t change…and after believing it long enough- you are saying basically “God even you can’t change me… it is just the way I am.” What kind of bigger insult could we ever give to the one who made us than to say, “You don’t have the power to change me.” I have become a prisoner, locked by deception.
Good news is that the weapons we fight with are so powerful they are able to completely obliterate all these strongholds we often have. However, we have to build a strategy (the word warfare..actually means strategy). Before armies go out to battle they build a strategy for how they are going to win. The devil certainly has a strategy for deceiving people. So what is your strategy to win the war of chronic strongholds we battle?
Let me give you a cheesy acronym (but hopefully you can remember) to help you W.I.N.
W- Wallop the thoughts-
Remember the video game where you took a mallot and beat all the critters that popped up randomly.
He says you got to take every thought, thoughts you know that are inconsistent with God’s Word got to take it captive… beat it… wallop it. Anything not of God- we demolish it. See thoughts we allow will form the actions or choices we make.
So whenever your mind says, “I cannot overcome this addiction,” capture this thought. “I can’t stop this new habit. I’ve tried before, and I can’t do it, can’t stick with it…” Wallop or beat that thought. “Well, this is just the way …” Capture this thought. Make it obedient to Christ.
“I can do all things through Him, who gives me strength. I’m more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. I am an over comer. Not by my own power, but by the blood of the lamb and by the words of my testimony. “
We capture every wrong thought. Philippians 4:8, Paul was great at this. From a prison, waiting possible execution, do you think strongholds of discouragement, pessimism, anger might come. He said, “Whatever is true and noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,” what do you do? You think about, you think about such things. We capture all the wrong thoughts. We make them obedient to Christ.
I-Implement right words-
The tongue is powerful. Proverbs 18:21- “The tongue has the power of life and death…”
I am not advocating a name it, claim it or positive confession thing that is built on speaking right words to get what you want and not on the foundations of God’s Word. However, there is a powerful principle of life that can come from the tongue. Self fulfilling prophecies do often happen.
We got to capture the wrong thoughts, but we also need to implement right words built on His Word.
Psalm 19:14- Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you (acceptable in your sight) O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
The idea in this passage is consistency. Is what I am speaking consistent with what is on the inside? Or do I say one thing but on the inside it is totally different? Jesus said out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
“but, I just can’t change.” You are a prisoner locked in by deception. Jesus Christ came to set us free. He has unlocked the door and he wants to open it up to you. Meditate on the verses that empower- “I can do all through Christ…I am more than a conqueror…etc.”
Lastly…
N-No longer a victim.
Jesus didn’t pay the price so we are just stuck in these old fleshly patterns. He didn’t go through just some of the cross, just some of the suffering. He took all of it and overcame it. He destroyed the power of sin and death.
Often we make a truce with sin or partially deal with it…not Jesus He destroyed it. And the truth is….we are no longer victims, we can overcome strongholds through Christ…period.
David Wilkenson shares the story of a book from Thomas Costain’s history, The Three Edwards, described the life of Raynald III, a fourteenth-century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.” After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room. This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter. When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.”
Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined he died within a year. . . a prisoner of his own appetite.
Paul says “to this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.”
Paul experienced a power that was beyond him. Avoid two extremes though. The first says “it is all about me…I got to try harder, be better, work harder.” The second is “I prayed about it, now God’s gotta do it.” No effort or labor or struggle on my part. Paul says it is His power working through us. I am doing my part and His strength is doing what I don’t have the ability to do.
I hope today you will refuse to except that you are just a victim. That your issues are impossible to deal with or experience victory. I pray you will draw near to Him and get His truth in you and overcome the lie “it’s just the way I am…can’t do anything about it.”
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