true:false

Have you ever questioned whether or not what you are believing at any given moment on any given day.. is true? that question might seem confusing at first so i'm going to try to clarify.. I'm not talking about what you believe about creation.. or angels or demons.. or once-saved, always saved.. yadda yadda.. i'm actually talking about on a day-to-day basis.. the ideals, opinions and beliefs you reference in order to conjure up a reaction to everyday life... the way you perceive things.. what you believe about yourself.. your gifts.. your dreams... your weaknesses... is what you are believing actually TRUE? because the things we believe, whether they be true or false, govern our approach to just about everything: the way we interact with people, the effort we put forth at our job, even our approach to God...

this is SUCH an important concept to have on your radar at all times.. because the enemy is ever-so-tricky.. he's constantly throwing lies in our direction.. and i do mean constantly. if we aren't on our guard.. we'll make an agreement with him.. if we aren't paying attention.. we'll agree to take in a whispered falsehood that he managed to slip into our drink when we weren't looking... and then BAM. before you know it.. the untruth is in you... working itself into the way you think about EVERYTHING.

the only way i know how to further explain what i'm talking about is to tell you why this idea occurred to me in the first place.. a while back i read the book 'walking with God' by john eldridge (this book comes highly recommended by me by the way.. it will do wonders for your ability to hear God's voice telling you which way to go) there is a section in the book where he talks about asking God 2 questions pertaining to your daily walk: Lord, how do I think i'm doing? and Lord, how do YOU think i'm doing?

i have only done this twice.. the first time was the night i read about it in the book.. and i cannot tell you how vital it was for me to ask God to correct my thinking that night.. the way i was believing about myself was giving me a crooked and timid posture towards the Lord.. i'll explain. when i asked God to give me clarity about what I was believing about my daily walk with Him, the words that i sensed he was telling me were distracted and lame. so i went to one of my all-time-favorite websites for further understanding of what the Lord was trying to tell me: dictionary.com. lame means crippled or physically disabled; impaired; weak; inadequate; and unsatisfactory. distracted means having attention diverted; incapable of behaving, reacting, etc. in a normal manner due to worry or remorse. wow.. so, that sounds pretty bad, right? and unfortunately.. it was pretty accurate.. i was hanging my head pretty low at that time.. and my interaction with God was reflective of what i was believing.. i mean, there's no way i was going to be able to approach the throne of God with confidence if i was believing that trash.

so then i asked God to fill me in on how he thought i was doing.. and immediately the words rendered and reciprocated were resounding with my spirit.. i then looked up the definitions of course.. rendered means to be submitted or presented for for approval; to give or make available; to give what is due or owed; to surrender or relinquish; to be yielded. the Lord was telling me that he sees me. he sees my sacrifice and all of the things that i've laid at his feet in order to obey and love Him.. i don't know why.. but there is nothing like the affirmation that comes from knowing God sees you trying.. that he notices you.. immediately my walls came down.. and the barriers that were set in place to keep me from feeling the love of God came crashing down.. the Lord showed me that i'd been walking with my head down.. keeping busy.. and stiff-arming his affections toward me.. all because the enemy had me convinced that i sucked at loving God.. but the definition of the word reciprocated spoke truth into my low opinion of myself. reciprocated means to give or feel in return; to give and receive reciprocally; an interchange.. basically, the Lord let me know that he delights in the way i love Him.. that his heart races at even just one glance from me.. i smile at the thought of that.. even now :)

so that was an awesome interaction with God.. and surprisingly enough, weeks went by.. and i didn't ask God these 2 oh-so-important questions... and of course, the enemy set out to get me again... i was feeling discouraged.. and like so many times before.. i forgot to look around for my accuser..

but the Lord reminded me this weekend to ask Him again: Lord, how do i think i'm doing? The answer: despondent. Despondent? do i even know what that word means? nope. so i looked it up. the definition of despondent is feeling or showing profound hopelessness, dejection, discouragement, or gloom. ick. that's not a good thing to believe.. but there i was, believing it. so then i asked for the truth: God, how do you think i'm doing. His answer: radiant. radiant: emitting rays of light; shining bright; bright with joy, hope, etc; radiant smiles; a radiant future.. man. that is the EXACT opposite of what i was believing.. no surprise there.. stupid satan. and the cool thing about God saying that i am radiant is that (i realized this the next day after flipping back through a few weeks of my journal) last week i prayed that the Lord would make me radiant.. i actually took a verse that ben ghormley wrote for the song we are singing in a wedding this weekend and wrote it in my journal like a prayer:

make me radiant

without blemishes

i wanna be your blameless bride

pure and innocent

in your righteousness

i wanna meet you dressed in white...

anyway.. the lord was answering my prayer.. calling me the very thing that i had asked him to make me.. and immediately.. my wrong posture was corrected. my confidence was restored...

so.. ALL THIS (i realize this is a seriously long post) to say that it is so vital to ask the Lord to correct our wrong thinking.. we have to ask him to let us know if we are believing things that are false.. and counting them as true.. because the enemy is going to do what he can to shatter your confidence.. and if you are believing God's heart towards you to be anything less than "i love you daughter (son).. you are radiant with my light.. your life is my priority... " then maybe you should consider the source of your belief..

"No wepon formed against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD.

Isaiah 54:7