Many of us have a tendency to
think in absolutes where "every" occasion is full of
"never" or "always" issues that upset us. We see events as either black or white and have no room in
our life for the gray.
We make accusations toward
one another using these words and end up wounding those we love. We live in an
"all or nothing" world where we strive for perfection and disparage
our self if we fall short of what is expected of us.
We view our self as flawed or
even as a total failure, forgetting the many accomplishments we have and the
successes we reap from our efforts of walking in God's will each moment of our
day.
We label our self with
distorted names and listen to Satan's accusations that we are "losers",
an "idiot", a "jerk", not "good enough" or "a burden" on others. We feel like we are not good for
anything and we may even eventually quit trying.
Our idea of self-worth
diminishes and we wallow in hopelessness. We may even ignore compliments and
words of encouragement from fellow Saints, because we believe Satan's lies over
the truth.
Rather than gathering all the
facts about a situation, we grab hold of the devil's lies, which he is always whispering in our
inner ear, and we interpret the situation with a false conclusion.
We even falsely determine
that a person's bad mood is a reflection of his/her feelings toward us, when
they are usually caused by issues in their own mind and circumstances.
This all triggers us to make
accusations toward one another that are not based in truth, and we end up
wounding the one who loves us most.
Prayer:
Father God, help us to draw
near to You, to resist Satan's lies and false accusations which play on our emotions, and to reflect
instead on Your Truth about our life and our situation. This way frustration,
guilt and fear do not rule our life and influence our feelings about one
another.
Teach us to live in grace
toward our self and each other, so that we do not develop absolute ways of
thinking that drive a wedge between us and cause us to rebel against our self,
our spouse and You. We want to live in the center of Your will - the happiest place on earth.
Thought for the Day:
We can learn to displace the
devil's negative lies and accusations by focusing on God's truth instead and
replacing them with thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely,
admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. - Philippians 4:8
