Shut up, please

Yesterday I wrote about trusting God, letting Him take care of things. Trusting. Check it out here: Why I Don't Worry About Birds Anymore

Today I am linking up with the lovely #VoiceBloggers and Jo Ann Fore at: http://joannfore.com/unraveling-the-lies-we-tell-ourselves/

What happens when it is our own voice that hurts us most? How to we silence the inner bully, the inner critic, the fault-finding-keeping-track-of-how-you-fail record keeper?  This is where I struggle, and confess, do not prevail as often as I would like.

It is easier for me to speak up for someone else. To pray for someone else. To advocate for someone else. For me? Not so much.

I watched a TV show today, and part of the mystery was solved when they realized that on a video tape (yep old school tape!) there was a video ghost where the eraser heads did not fully record over an older event. So it showed up as a ghost. Not really there. Not really part of the current recording but still impacting it.

Those old voices that shout negative things at me, at us, are like those video ghosts. They are not really there.

THEY ARE NOT REALLY THERE!

Even our own voices, reading back to us our failures, are not really there. They are not current. They are not a part of the now we live in. They are a lie. And the devil loves to use them against us.

He would rather us be caught up in the past and hurting. Ineffective. Impotent. Not praying. Not living the gospel. 

He would rather we be worried about the old ghost soundtrack than hearing God speak to us in the now. In the people, and life, around us. In God's word.

Do these lies sound familiar? 

You aren't smart enough to read the Bible.

 God won't hear a sinner like you praying.

Get it together you pathetic loser, God doesn't want you.

You don't have a place in ministry, you were so bad/fat/wounded/homeless/scared/scarred before.

And the truth is you can read God's word. Anyone can!  And He is faithful and speaks to us. We are so blessed to have apps and Bible cases to carry The Word with us everywhere.

God sent His Son to save sinners like me. Like you. He loved us enough to leave heaven, to bear our burdens and DIE for us. He loved us enough to RISE again, washed clean of OUR sin, to open the door to heaven. 

God doesn't just want you. He desires you. He loves you. He seeks you. He truly knows every hair on your head, and crafted you in the womb. You are precious.

We all have a place in ministry. We all have a story to share. We survived. We can be a witness to those struggling on a similar path to ours. We can be a witness to those who would disparage anyone whom they think of as less than.

Don't forget, EVER, that you are beloved. Precious. Your voice has value. Your scars have value.

And on those days when we celebrate the small victories against the negative voices God celebrates with us. 

And on those days when they cause us to fight with our loved ones, when they cause us to be flooded with bitter, acrid memories, God comforts us. IF WE LET HIM.

I once asked someone why they disliked me my whole life. (I am not exaggerating). They didn't like how I looked at birth.  And that colored their entire view of me for almost 30 years of my life. And I tried to make them love me. I served them. I did my best. 

Mary was pregnant with Jesus. Herod was so afraid of the child he was willing to murder a whole town's worth of babies to kill one. He hated him before birth. He saw him as a threat.

We are in good company on this healing path. Jesus walked it before we did. He knows the negative voices (didn't the devil throw them back at him in the wilderness? Yep he did!). He knows the sound of disbelief from family and friends when we seek God's will in our lives. He walked that walk. He knows when we cry out to Him in our hurt. He hears us. 

I wanted to join in on the link up, and another one, this week. I was trying to write yesterday. Yesterday was not a good day for that. God knew better.  Today, however, was the day He wanted me to write.

Take heart dear souls, God is not only with us, but He has gone before us. He knows this path. Those voices. He knows, and in that knowing we can rest in Him. He can calm the voices, and fully erase the ghost videos in our mind.

We only need to let Him.

Are you willing? Can we pray together?