I was sitting around the other day thinking about how implausible my dreams are. Do you ever have those times where you wonder why on earth you think you’re able to do something? It can be the ability to heal a broken relationship, get out of debt, find inner peace and joy, succeed financially or being able to develop deeper relationships. Whatever it is, if it’s something big and important, something that inherently carries with it the ability to not only succeed but to spectacularly fail, I find I can be paralyzed by it.
Nobody wants to fail, right? So in my moments of fear, I begin to worry it won’t happen, whatever my “it” may be. I won’t get that promotion, heal that emotional wound, move forward in victory—I’m sure I’ll fall right on my face. Then the negative whisperers move in. You ever meet them? They’re those voices in your head saying you not only won’t do it, but you never could do it and it was arrogant to believe you might be able to do it to begin with.
They’re a nasty lot, these whisperers. They love to mimic people in your mind, some long dead, and disguise themselves as someone whose approval you’ve valued. They can take on the face of your mom or dad, an enemy or friend, a significant relationship, or even God. Sometimes they’ll pose as all of the above, leaving you feeling hopeless and helpless, chastising yourself for ever having the audacity to dream big.
But as I was sitting there listening to those nasty whisperers trying to gnaw away at my soul, I began to hear another voice. This voice was calling my name, trying to get my attention. It came from a place of love and understanding, of genuine care and concern. This voice whispered, Stop! Listen to me. You are everything to me and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.
Then the voice reminded me of three scriptures, one of which reads:
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the believers, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory…” (Eph.3:16f)
Silent tears rained gently down my face as my dad showed up and reminded me He was there to strengthen me with His power. His love for me is beyond what I can comprehend but in that moment He was filling me with it, reminding me that He’s able to accomplish so much more than my current “it” issue. My dad knows how to pull the bullies off me, wipe the dirt off my face, fill me with courage and send me forward again with faith. You see my dad is the biggest Dad on the block and no one is able to defeat Him. He is in my corner, fighting for my cause. I have nothing to fear.
Guess what? He’s your dad, too! He loves you and longs to connect with you, to chase those nasty whisperers away from you and fill your heart and mind with love, vision, compassion and peace. And if you let Him, He’ll fill you again with confidence so you can walk back out onto the playground of life, ready.
For further thought: What do the whisperers in your head tell you? Take a hard look at those negative though patterns in your life, write them down, then cross them out and write God’s truth right next to it. While you can do this in your head, it is a very powerful experience to actually do it on paper. If you don’t know the truths to replace the lies with, a great place to start is at biblegateway.com. You can find every version of the bible online there, and you can type in key words like worthy, love, grace and forgiveness and find several scriptures on each topic. I promise you the result will be worth the effort!
Still need help? Post a few of your negative whispers and I’ll post a few scriptures for you to consider. Or you can always email me at ennoiaministries@gmail.com. Blessings!
Barb
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