I have been up for a few hours already. It is 5 am right now. Jack woke up with a bad dream and I just couldn't fall back to sleep. I decided to spend my time trying to be technical which only partially worked! I wish I knew how to update and organize my blog with gadgets and widgets...but I am after an hour of trying I have decided I just need to resort to asking for help! I did manage to set up a paypal account and add a donate button to my blog. That was quite an exciting moment for me. I am trying to add a Compassion International banner to my site but for some reason I don't know where to copy the information to make it show up. If you know what I am suppose to do...please help!! I so don't understand how to figure all of this out.
The Lord is teaching me some incredible things this year...this month...this week...this morning! I am just so humbled that I get to have such a beautiful relationship with our Father. It amazes me.
Through the past few years it has become evident to me that the enemy, the accuser, Satan...whatever name we give him....is out to steal who God created us to be so that we will not be effective for the Kingdom. When we don't believe who God says we are, it is difficult to operate in our gifts and talents. God says that we are worthy. God says that we are valuable. God says that he loves us...that we are forgiven. Our job is to believe this and live in the knowledge of it. We most likely are not going to "feel" this way all the time, but we can not rely on our feelings when we are choosing to trust in the Lord. Our feelings can sometimes (okay a lot of the time) get in the way of believing who God says we are.
Last week the Lord gave me the insight that there are many people with mental impairments that are standing in the way of believing and operating fully in the love of God. I remember when I was in the midst of recovering from an eating disorder...which really was recovering from living in self hate, shame, guilt and fear...I could not believe that I was worthy of being healed or being free or allowing anyone or at that matter allowing God to love me. All I could see were the labels that I had attached to myself.
I had to shed those labels. At first I held on to them tight. I didn't want to let them go. The enemy fought to keep them in my life. But even before I could fully believe that I was who God says I am....I had to believe anyway. I had to repeat over and over...that I was loved, valuable, worthy, smart, beautiful. For so many years I had been telling myself the opposite and then making decision after decision that supported my terrible thoughts. For so many years I clung on to the events that labeled me ugly, bad, dirty, horrible, disgusting, stupid, unwanted, used, gross, unworthy...not only did I hold on to those labels I spoke those words to myself day after day, hour after hour. Of course I believed them. Those are the words that I spoke, that I believed, that I knew. That is who I was. No one could tell me different.
But God never gave up on me. He brought me to a place of complete desperation. He placed people in my life who spoke love and life in to me. And finally one day when I realized that everything I had done or had been done to me was taken care of at the Cross and that Jesus really did that for me...that I could lay it all down at His feet and leave it there. That I was stripped clean because His love covered me. His love cleaned me off. His love wrote truth in to my heart and finally in to my thoughts and I began to be able to begin to believe that I really was who God said I am.
We are not the product of our circumstances.
We are a product of the Most High God.
We are born out of love...maybe not our earthly parents love...but the Father's love.
We are His daughters and sons.
How do you finally believe that you are who God says you are? You believe God's Word. His Word is truth and it says it all over those thin pages in black and white. He wrote you a love letter. It isn't just for your neighbor or the person sitting next to you at church...it is for YOU too.
Some of you reading may be thinking that I don't know what you have been through or what you have done...and you are right...I may not know...but what I do know is that I have seen the pit of destruction...I have sat in the mud and mire...I have been hurt and broken...I have hurt and broke others. I have experienced much...and I will share that with you if you need help.
God has given us the gift of life...the gift of time...the gift of love...
I pray that you will open up this gift and embrace the life, the time and the love.
Believe and trust. Speak words of truth not lies.
Don't let the enemy still your time...God gave it to you...it is yours.
I so wish I could just make you believe this. I will spend the rest of my given time here on this earth speaking this truth to the people...I lived my the first 42 years of my life believing the lies...and now that I live in His truth...I can not stop speaking this truth to YOU.
With so much love,
Teresa
The Lord is teaching me some incredible things this year...this month...this week...this morning! I am just so humbled that I get to have such a beautiful relationship with our Father. It amazes me.
Through the past few years it has become evident to me that the enemy, the accuser, Satan...whatever name we give him....is out to steal who God created us to be so that we will not be effective for the Kingdom. When we don't believe who God says we are, it is difficult to operate in our gifts and talents. God says that we are worthy. God says that we are valuable. God says that he loves us...that we are forgiven. Our job is to believe this and live in the knowledge of it. We most likely are not going to "feel" this way all the time, but we can not rely on our feelings when we are choosing to trust in the Lord. Our feelings can sometimes (okay a lot of the time) get in the way of believing who God says we are.
Last week the Lord gave me the insight that there are many people with mental impairments that are standing in the way of believing and operating fully in the love of God. I remember when I was in the midst of recovering from an eating disorder...which really was recovering from living in self hate, shame, guilt and fear...I could not believe that I was worthy of being healed or being free or allowing anyone or at that matter allowing God to love me. All I could see were the labels that I had attached to myself.
I had to shed those labels. At first I held on to them tight. I didn't want to let them go. The enemy fought to keep them in my life. But even before I could fully believe that I was who God says I am....I had to believe anyway. I had to repeat over and over...that I was loved, valuable, worthy, smart, beautiful. For so many years I had been telling myself the opposite and then making decision after decision that supported my terrible thoughts. For so many years I clung on to the events that labeled me ugly, bad, dirty, horrible, disgusting, stupid, unwanted, used, gross, unworthy...not only did I hold on to those labels I spoke those words to myself day after day, hour after hour. Of course I believed them. Those are the words that I spoke, that I believed, that I knew. That is who I was. No one could tell me different.
But God never gave up on me. He brought me to a place of complete desperation. He placed people in my life who spoke love and life in to me. And finally one day when I realized that everything I had done or had been done to me was taken care of at the Cross and that Jesus really did that for me...that I could lay it all down at His feet and leave it there. That I was stripped clean because His love covered me. His love cleaned me off. His love wrote truth in to my heart and finally in to my thoughts and I began to be able to begin to believe that I really was who God said I am.
We are not the product of our circumstances.
We are a product of the Most High God.
We are born out of love...maybe not our earthly parents love...but the Father's love.
We are His daughters and sons.
How do you finally believe that you are who God says you are? You believe God's Word. His Word is truth and it says it all over those thin pages in black and white. He wrote you a love letter. It isn't just for your neighbor or the person sitting next to you at church...it is for YOU too.
Some of you reading may be thinking that I don't know what you have been through or what you have done...and you are right...I may not know...but what I do know is that I have seen the pit of destruction...I have sat in the mud and mire...I have been hurt and broken...I have hurt and broke others. I have experienced much...and I will share that with you if you need help.
God has given us the gift of life...the gift of time...the gift of love...
I pray that you will open up this gift and embrace the life, the time and the love.
Believe and trust. Speak words of truth not lies.
Don't let the enemy still your time...God gave it to you...it is yours.
I so wish I could just make you believe this. I will spend the rest of my given time here on this earth speaking this truth to the people...I lived my the first 42 years of my life believing the lies...and now that I live in His truth...I can not stop speaking this truth to YOU.
With so much love,
Teresa
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