“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them” (Deuteronomy 28:1-13).
We all have an inner critic. At times this little voice can actually be helpful and keep us motivated toward goals—like when it reminds us that what we’re about to eat isn’t healthy or what we’re about to do may not be wise. However, this voice can often be more harmful than helpful, particularly when it gets into the realm of excessive negativity. This is known as negative self-talk (aka) ‘stankin’ thinking!
In short, negative self-talk is any inner dialogue you have with yourself that may be limiting your ability to fully believe in God and/or yourself.
I’ve heard it said, “Your faith can move mountains, but your doubt can create them.” Quiet as it’s kept, no voice influences your demise or rise as quickly than your own inner voice. Proverbs 18:21 cautiously admonitiones, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love to talk will have to eat their own words.”
Overcoming negative self-talk means developing an accurate sense of identity (who you are) and living from that place. This internal resolution can be a matter of life and death. Why? Because every success or failure in life is first filtered through a sense of identity and your identity is found in only in Christ. Ephesians 2:10 confirms: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
If negative self-talk is not your issue than perhaps other people’s opinions about you are swaying the pendulum in the wrong direction. Well, Cornelius Lindsey said, “If you don’t make people’s opinion the source of your joy – their opinions can never be a source of your pain.” I haven’t found a scripture in the Bible that says, ‘The joy of the people is our strength, but I’ve read in Nehemiah 8:10, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”
Bottom line, God made you and He is the only one that gives your life true meaning. He’s the most stable and unchanging force in existence. When you fully embrace your personal relationship with Him, you literally carry His presence inside of you.
The good news is that God’s word can deliver you from negative self-talk and the tired ole repetitive antics the enemy uses to immerse you into self-doubt, disappointment and confusion. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, you are given the battle plan for victory in this area: “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Did you know that you can’t hold two thoughts at the same time? This is one of God’s built in fail-safe that you can exploit to your advantage.
I’ll submit to you that if you change the way you think of yourself, the world around you will change and fall in line with how you see yourself! Paul confirms there is power in positive thinking. He said in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whateverthings are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.”
The only way you will be successful in defeating negative self-talk and/or the erroneous opinions of others is to make Bible study, prayer, and meditation a lifestyle so that you can distinguish truths from lies. In your prayer ask God to silence every voice in your head so that you can clearly hear His voice. Ideas that argue against the truth or don’t line up with our Shepherd’s voice must be captured and made to submit to Him.
You are not defined by the negative self-talk conversation your have with yourself nor the senseless chattering opinions of other people. You’re a son or daughter of the living God and are hereby defined by Him and Him alone!
(If this message isn’t applicable to your situation please share it with someone who you believe can benefit from this word of encouragement.)
Have you ever felt like you were caught in a cycle of emotional or psychological pain that you just couldn’t break?
Let’s be honest, we’ve all experienced this kind of pain at some point or another in our lives.
In most cases, the conception of this mindset is birth by creating your own suffering.
People either consciously or unconsciously create their own suffering by choosing to stay in the same painful cycle and by giving energy to another person, situation or past trauma that caused a whole lot of pain and suffering in their lives. Literally, people don’t stop rehashing it with friends or family, reliving it in their minds, engaging with the person(s) who caused their pain, revisiting the spot where the traumatic event occurred or they simply refuse to just let it go.
If that’s you, I got two words for you today: ‘stop’ and ‘surrender’.
Stop reliving the offense and surrender it all to God.
I’ve heard it said, “While pain might be inevitable, the suffering that comes from the pain is not. Suffering is not a state of life; it is a state of mind. Suffering is your response to an event. Whether you suffer or not depends entirely on your reaction to that situation.”
Let’s be clear, only God can take the pain of past trauma and transform it into a platform for future ministry. God promises that all things, even painful events of the past, will work together for the good when we love Him and seek His will for our lives (Romans 8:28). He invites all victims to lose the “victimhood” status and learn to see themselves as “clothed with strength and dignity” (Proverbs 31:25).
When you surrender it to God you release yourself from the bondage of pain. Surrender empowers you to learn to love and trust again. Many people just like you have found renewed hope and restoration simply by laying the weight of their pain at the foot of the cross.
Healing starts when you lift it all up to God and let go.
Beloved of God, I would like to encourage each of you reading this devotional today to take one step at a time, pray for God’s Word to guide you, read or listen to God’s Word, and meditate on God’s Word when the problems, worries, and anxieties of life comes your way!
I also would like to encourage you to stop carrying the weight of worry, anxiety, stress, and depression. Yes, the world is not in a good place right now, but that doesn’t mean that God isn’t good or capable of bearing your burdens. In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
I get it, I am acutely and intimately aware that at times the pain is too much to bear and oftentimes, the burden(s) are too heavy to cast. So let me tell you a little secret—giving things over to Christ is really no secret at all—it’s simply recognizing that God is able to make the impossible-possible. Jesus gives us confirmation in Matthew 19:26 and He said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Bearing that I mind, we must also consider that sometimes God uses us as part of the answer to our own prayers. ‘Turning it over to God’ does not always mean we stop taking action. That might mean following your doctor’s treatment plan if you’re sick, or creating a new business if you’re out of a job, or forgiving someone that hurt you, or forgiving yourself, or going to marriage counseling if your relationship is in trouble. In other words, when you turn it over to God keep doing what is in your power to do.
Undoubtedly and unequivocally, God is bigger than all our worries and problems put together, and we must realize that if we are to truly experience any milestone victories in our lives.
Do something different today and turn it all over to God and…….
When I pray, how do I really know that God is listening? Quiet as it’s kept, a lot of people secretly ask themselves this question.
Prayer is best simply defined as having a conversation and when we converse with God it should be like conversing with one of our best friends. The only difference in conversations is that God doesn’t typically respond audibly nor immediately. However, you can rest assured that when you speak, He hears you and He will always answer you.
I John 5:14-15 reminds all believer of this truth, “ And we are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for.”
In the above passages of text John relates the idea of confidence in prayer to our salvation in Christ. In other words, if we know that we are saved, sealed and delivered, than we should equally possess the same conviction that when we communicate to God, He hears every spoken and/or unspoken prayer.
Once we get comfortable with the idea that God hears our prayers the next conflict arises when we don’t get what we prayed for. Too often believers skip right over the suffix of v13. John says, if we ask according to His will not our will! A common—but only partly correct—idea about prayer is that its purpose is to get things from God and to change His mind regarding the course of events.
Oh but on the contrary, prayer is not just about getting what you ask for, but about living in peace even when you don’t get what we want. Prayer removes anxiety and restores understanding in both heart and mind. Philippians 4:6-7 confirms, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus said in Matthew 6:8: “Therefore do not be like [the hypocrites]. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” This verse leads into the model prayer, indicating that we should not pray with the idea that we are bringing something new to God. It also introduces the thought that the purpose of prayer is not to overcome God’s reluctance to answer and give but rather to lay hold of His willingness to help us toward His perspective, the fulfillment of His purpose, and into His Kingdom. The overall emphasis in our requests, then, must be inclined toward His purpose and will.
I’ll close with this reminder: God sees, God knows, God cares, and if you have time to pray (according to His will), God takes time to listen!
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the verb “restore” as to bring back to or put back something to a former or original state.
Gratefully, our nation and the world around us is embarking on a new season and new journey of restoration. When people and systems are broken to a point beyond repair than the only thing left to do is to restore both the people and systems back to their point of origin, prior to crash or malfunction.
Granted, I’m not an IT expert by no stretch of the virtual imagination, but I do know that when I am experiencing software glitches or a crash, I can always restore any device back to a previous safe point or back-up safe point without damaging the system’s integrity.
I get it, restoring a life is much more arduous and complicated. However, when all else seems contradicted, the promise of restoration is a continually reminder throughout Biblical history. Starting from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is filled with rich images of healing and restoration. The theme of restoration provides a foundation for correctly understanding sin and suffering, God’s plan for His creation, and His unstoppable quest to save His people and restore them to His imagine. In Jeremiah 30:17, the prophet said, “God will restore you to health and heal your wounds.”
PRAISE BREAK Hallelujah Almighty God in Christ Jesus, because You know that 2020 has inflicted some scars and wounds on your people and our systems that only You and Your church can heal!!
Why do you think the enemy is fighting tooth and nail to dismantle the creditability of God’s church? The enemy knows that God has always used the church to restore people and reform systems. Bear in mind, I am not referring to brick and mortar buildings. However, I am referring to community aka God’s people!
In short, we’ve talk about restoring scars and wounds, but let not forget about lost years. Time is fleeting and the truth of the matter is we can’t restore time!
Yet God promises the impossible: “I will restore the years that the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25).
Therefore, our Biblical concept of restoration is all inclusive of scars, wounds and time. The Bible properly places lifestyle change into it’s proper context—a bigger picture than just preventing disease, feeling and looking better, or living longer. It also provides access to a God who heals and saves; who is bigger than time and the health issues faced today; who creates new health amid suffering; who is working nonstop to completely restore His people in every dimension of life so that they can spend eternity with Him.
Followers of Jesus of Christ, at the end of the day God’s orchestrated restoration will always bring immeasurable victory!! The Lord has promised to restore your wasted years. He will renew your 2021 and He will fill the remaining days in 2020 with limitless blessings. Submit your will to His. Ask Him to fulfill His complete purpose for you and trust Him to do it.
In Matthew 4:1-11 we find that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards was hungry. The enemy approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread. He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Then the enemy took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test.” Then the enemy took him up to a very high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the enemy left him, and behold angels came and ministered to him.
Did you catch that? The enemy came knocking when Jesus was at his weakest. Yes, Jesus is 100% God, but He was also 100% man. However, Jesus unlike us didn’t succumb to the enemy’s tricks, schemes and foolery! Jesus did what we should do, turned it over to God.
Looking back in the OT, do you remember when the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat? What did Jehoshaphat do? He prayed and turned it over to God and God showed up, but before He took care of business His spirit came upon Jahaziel and the Lord spoke through him and said in 2 Chronicles 20:15, “Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” I don’t know if you read the entire story, but in verses 23-24 we find: “The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them. After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began attacking each other. So when the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the wilderness, all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground as far as they could see. Not a single one of the enemy had escaped.”
Now, back before all this cool video door bell technology was introduce and way before door bell charms started being installed on homes people had physically knock or use a door knocker to access your home. With that said, the enemy tricks, schemes and foolery are no different today then they were back in the desert. Therefore, when the enemy knocks at your door say, “Jesus, it’s for you.”
If you alone are fighting the battle against the enemy I leave you with a few self-evaluation questions to ponder:
Do you know Jesus well enough to ask Him to answer your front door? When life and the devil deal you a bad hand, can you get the Lord to sit at the table and play it for you? Is your relationship to the Almighty current enough, casual enough, familiar and habitual enough to take His presence in your life for granted? In times of great anxiety, do you need to whisper to God to take over or are you screaming at the top of your lungs hoping He’ll hear your plight?
Remember, the battle is not yours, it’s the Lord’s!
