LIES!

From the time I was tiny (maybe 5 or 6 years old), I can remember begging my Mom non-stop to go to the local christian book store and rent a VHS movie called The Bride. It was a theatrical production done by a church live on stage but recorded. I LOVED it! I can’t tell you how many times I watched it. One of my most beloved moments (though I have many) of that play is the moment the little girl (the church/the bride) has matured and grown up. There is a scene where Satan comes and accuses her of all the things she is or is facing. There is an explosion, intensity, fight……It is a screaming match of 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. The Devil tells her she is perplexed, persecuted, cast down. All the while she is pushing herself off the ground, standing back up with a Bible in her hand, interrupting saying, “but not in despair!”, “but not abandoned!”, “but not destroyed!”. All the while her courage, her authority, her boldness, her assurance is rising until instead of the Devil pushing her down and towering over her, her sword is drawn (the bible in her hand shaking/pointing at the Devil) and she is steadily striding towards him until he is tripping over himself as she releases the war cry “I am coming after you!” and he drops back into the pit he crawled out of in the first place. She enters into praise (with all of heaven behind her) and it just gets better from there.   

I have not seen this movie for probably 20 years (I only own it on VHS and don’t have a VHS player….and the last time I tried to use a VHS player to view it, the tape almost got caught. I am now afraid it will get ruined…I may have one of the only copies left!) However, I regularly wish I could watch it again. I often do in my mind.

This movie is responsible for defining my first favorite scripture = 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. (I know …maybe a strange first scripture to fall in love with…and especially for a 5 year old.) I am regularly drawn back to this scripture and find rest and comfort as well as joy and excitement in it. Tonight I dug deeper! I wrote out all of the lies this one scripture allows us to identify and cast out.

We are not crushed: in other words, we are not deformed, we are not pulverized, we are not forced inwards, we are not overwhelmingly disappointed or embarrassed.

If you have ever been disappointed, GOOD NEWS you can not be overwhelmingly so. As soon as you feel (it is a feeling not a fact) overwhelmed by it….you can immediately call it out as a lie straight from Satan. Wag your Bible at him and say NOT TODAY. I am not crushed!

If you have ever been embarrassed, rest in the truth of God’s word that you are not overwhelmingly so. This embarrassment can’t prevent you from doing what you set out to do. Your focus on the lie of how horrible the embarrassment was may hold you back, but as soon as you get the right view, God’s view/His Word, YOU ARE NOT CRUSHED!

If you have ever been turned inward afraid to open up to anyone or anything around you, it is a LIE! You might have turned that direction but you are not forced to remain there! There is a sure foundation and biblical bedrock that you can stand on: you are NOT crushed!

We are not in despair/distressed: in other words, we are not a complete loss, we are not in absence of hope, we are not suffering from anxiety, we are not suffering from sorrow, we are not suffering from pain, we are not impoverished!!

Oh this is so good even without explanation. I am going to repeat it: we are not a complete loss, we are not in absence of hope, we are not suffering from anxiety, we are not suffering from sorrow, we are not suffering from pain, we are not impoverished!!  

To suffer is to be forced to endure, to put up with as inevitable or unavoidable…or simply to allow by reason of indifference! :0 Wake Up! You have a God given promise that you might feel pain, sorrow, or anxiety, but you are not in despair! You do not have to suffer from it!! Do not let Satan rob you from such promise and blessing. Get your sword and take back what he stole from you!

We have hope! We are found in Him! We are restored! We are blessed beyond what we can even contain!

We are never abandoned/forsaken: in other words, we are never deserted, we are never cast off, we are never left empty, we are never without interest, we are never condemned, we are never renounced, we are never discontinued with.

There is nothing you can do, say, think, not do, not say, not think that will separate you from God. You are pleasing to God, you have his attention ALWAYS (even when he doesn’t have yours), and He delights in you. You are his delight! If you have ever struggled with the thought that you are not wanted, have not been wanted, won’t be wanted (me. I am raising my hand and waiving it around in complete transparency and honesty…this has been a VERY real struggle for me …probably for more years that I have been aware and intensively so over the last couple years), YOU ARE NEVER ABANDONED! YOU ARE NEVER ABANDONED! I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABANDONED!!!!!!! You are wanted! I am wanted! We have interest! We are interesting! We are delightful! We are captivating! We are full and running over; rivers of living water flowing out of us!   

We are not destroyed: in other words, we are not at the end of existence, we are not ruined, we are not utterly defeated, we are not annihilated, we are not neutralized, we are not vanquished.

If you have ever felt numb or frozen, this is a LIE. You have not been neutralized, YOU ARE NOT DESTROYED. Stop standing in one place. Move! March!

If you have ever felt ruined, by bankruptcy, slander, loss of reputation, disaster….YOU ARE NOT DESTROYED! Beauty comes from ashes. Dry bones move and live again!

If you have ever felt utterly defeated, maybe from a heart break or injustice that brought you to the ground in discouragement or grief, know that You are not destroyed!!! Get Up! Send those LIES from Satan stumbling backwards toppling over themselves. Strut forward in praise and know all of Heaven is backing you up, coming alongside you and proclaiming the Glory of God over you and your each next step. He has already delivered to you the ground where your feet trod and has sent angels to dance before you and to pick you up and carry you less you dash even a single toe.