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Lifeline

God is working on me this evening...and I sense it is because someone out there needs to read this and He won't let me rest until I do! 

Have you ever been mistreated? Felt unworthy? Or unloved? Or worse...unlovable?

I have a feeling we could all say yes...

Let's go deeper. Have you ever gotten through those situations and never gotten an apology for being made to feel that way, or for having been treated that way? 

Sometimes apologies don't come. 

On good days, I know that lack of apology says more about the person who did the hurting than it does of me.

But. On the bad days, the lack of apology says many things from the negative voices inside my head. You are so insignificant, you aren't worthy of an apology. You deserved that treatment. Because of how little value you are, of course they treated you this way...why should they feel bad? You are worthless. 

Ouch. Those thoughts can destroy you if you let them. So when they start, I turn into Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger games who, when she had flashbacks would tell herself the things she knew. Her age. Certain facts. It was her therapy.

I do the same, but I ask myself one question. Do I believe the words in the Bible are true? My answer is yes. And then the relief comes. 

Because I believe that the words of the Bible are God-breathed and true, I KNOW: 
  • God has redeemed me and summoned me by name. I am precious and honored in his sight and he loves me. (Isaiah 43)
  • God has crowned me with steadfast love and mercy. (Psalm 103)
  • I am a child of God. (John 1). 
  • Jesus Christ is the good shepherd; and he chose to lay his life down for me. (John 10)
  • His word is strong tower that I can run to and be safe. (Proverbs 18)
  • That I shall have no fear of bad news because my heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord (Psalm 112)
  • That the Holy Spirit has given me an endless amount of love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. (Galatians 5). 
  • That God has told me to be brave and courageous because He is with me wherever I go. (Joshua 1)
These verses bring a calming to my soul. My spirit rests. I find peace. 

Without my little blips of Truth, I would continue down the negative thought train. Those bits of Truth are my lifeline. 

And although I wish it hadn't taken my present circumstances for me to find my lifeline in the Lord, I can guarantee you I'm never letting go. 

Friend, if you haven't grabbed a hold of the lifeline that is presented to you in the Bible, I encourage you to reach out and hold it with a death grip. Read that book. Look up the chapters above or find where God is speaking to you. Write down what He tells you. Memorize the verses. Personalize them. Make them yours until those words live in your heart and can get you out of the darkest of times. If you don't know the words; they can't be a weapon for your soul...and there is no weapon against your own thoughts or the darkness of this world like those words. They can demolish strongholds. Even the strongest ones. 

I'm not saying once you find a verse, or verses that speak to you, everything is wonderful and you never have bad thoughts. On the contrary, having those words stored up just helps you when the negative thoughts come...because they will come. You just have to have a game plan in place for handling them when they do.

And whoever needs this, I'm closing with my favorite quote from Ann Voskamp: "...there is a plan and there is a purpose and there is a God in heaven who didn't just ink you onto the palm of his hands but etched your name right into himself with nails and he hasn't just got your number, he's got your heart. He sees you, hidden in him and you aren't ever forgotten because God can't forget those right in him. Because God's writing your story and he never leaves you alone in your story, and his perfect love absorbs all your fear and his perfect grace carries all your burdens, and your story IS a happily ever after because Christ bought your happily ever after so you ALWAYS know how this story ends: You're going to be okay."

You ARE going to be okay. And you are worth something. And your God loves you :)



 

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