March 13, 2024

Before I met Jesus, I was extremely insecure. I always thought I was too fat, couldn’t make my own decisions, and thought too little of myself. This was, of course, not good at all, but this had to do with very old patterns and ways of thinking that I could not change on my own. I always looked for validation from others; I asked for help with every decision that had to be made, and I always asked myself what I looked like. Whether my make-up was good and whether my clothes did not make me look fat. I also expressed all this uncertainty very often. Recently, I was reminded by God that I actually didn’t do this anymore! As much as I used to be concerned with my appearance, especially in a negative sense, I am no longer concerned with it at all these days. I still like nice clothes and make-up, but I no longer look at myself negatively. God has gradually freed me from this! What a relief to no longer be insecure about not only my appearance but my entire identity! I have been able to learn from God that it is only important how He thinks about me and not how people think about me. I have been able to re-evaluate how He sees me, and see myself that way. To be honest, I didn’t have to put any effort into this. I think because I put God first and was only concerned with Him, He started working with me and restored this to me without me even realizing it. God is so good! /*! elementor – v3.19.0 – 28-02-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} “Seek first the kingdom of God and all other things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33 Words have power! The Bible teaches us that life and death is in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). With this, God points out to us that we must be extremely careful with what we say about ourselves and others. But in this blog, I just want to focus on the words we say about ourselves. All of this involves knowing that you know, that you know, that you know, and that you know who you are in Christ. No, this isn’t a typo, LOL. It is knowing in the depths of your soul what your identity is in Christ. That is, by far, the most important thing! Because this makes all other opinions of people or your own negative opinion of yourself pale into insignificance. They are no longer important. But we also need to become aware of the words we say. We are so quickly inclined to say negative words, words of illness and ‘death’. “Everyone has the flu, so I will get it too. I cannot do this or I can’t do that. That is too ambitious for me etc.” You can’t imagine anything so crazy, and we speak things out, not knowing that we are actually cursing ourselves and giving the enemy a pass into our lives! Return to Sender I prefer not to give the enemy a platform, but what I mean by this requires some explanation. The enemy is powerless in the life of a born again Christian for we have the authority of Jesus. “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” – Luke 10:19 He can only do something if we give him permission to do so or accept his lies. I am a visual thinker, and what helped me enormously was the image of the enemy standing at my door with a package in his hands. He rings the doorbell, and I open it and see that jerk. Included in that package is probably nothing good, since he can only bring trouble. It must be lies, disease, poverty or something like that. He wants to give me that package, but what am I going to do? Well, do not accept the package, right? Just keep your garbage with you; I don’t need it. This is how he comes into our lives with his mess, lies and misery. Only, do we accept it, or do we return it to sender? He has different tactics and often he starts with lies in your head in the hope that you will say them out loud. Once you say these lies, you are essentially accepting his package. You give him permission; you come into an agreement. Lies like “you can’t do that, you’re not good enough, you’re ugly, you’re too fat, everyone has the flu so you’ll get the flu too” you name it, he can come up with all kinds of things. “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We 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 When you know who you are in Christ, you also know how to distinguish the lies. You learn this by simply spending time with God and staying in His Word. “Keep this book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” –Joshua 1:8 It’s like a domino effect: you go from thinking — to speaking — and then you see things manifested in your life. But the good news is; it works the same way with speaking words of life! Hallelujah! To become aware of what you actually say about yourself, you could think or say “Just the way I like it” behind every thought or everything you say about yourself. I’m sick again, Just the way