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Step 9—Rebuilding Self Esteem
The enemy is out to defeat us every single chance he gets. He cannot read my mind. He isn’t omniscient, like God is. He can only introduce the thoughts to see if you are going to agree with him through speaking it. And he uses the same ones over and over again but he has no new tricks. He is a liar and the father of lies and the truth is not in him. The realization that I am at war with an enemy seems to drape across my mind every day. Ignoring it only brings me anguish and anxiety.
Peace is a fruit of the spirit; not my spirit but His Spirit. It is who He is. If I stay in His presence then that is where peace is. That is where I will find the real me, the me that He created and has a plan for. It is His peace I will walk in. Here are five things I do to stay in that place.
1. ♥ I am endeavoring to be constantly alert to what I am thinking and what fills my thought life.
I have learned to recognize the negative thought as not from me. If it brings fear, anxiety, or worry into my head then I know it is not from me. Our enemy cannot read our minds but he certainly can bring thoughts in. If we agree with the thought by saying it and entertaining it a strong hold develops and before I know it I am obsessed with the thing. I immediately push it out of my head by saying “I love you Jesus” over and over until it leaves. Or if the Holy Spirit brings a scripture to mind then I repeat that over and over. Did you know you can’t think two thoughts at the same time? If you, by the force of your will, say His name or scripture in place of the thought enough times, the thought leaves. It cannot stay. If you are persistent and don’t give up satan will finally leave you for a while. Oh, he’ll be back but after a while he is easily recognized.
2. ♥ I start reading scripture that pertains to what I need at the moment.
Write them out and meditate on them. Pray them over yourself. Put yourself right into the scripture…”Lord, I thank you that because I dwell in your secret place of you, most high, I shall remain stable and fixed within your shadow..” “Thank you Lord for giving your angels charge over me to accompany me in all my ways, and thank you that even if a thousand fall by my side and 10 thousand my right hand, it will not come near me, for I will be inaccessible in that secret place.” Psalm 91
3. ♥ I refuse to allow negativity rule me.
Learn to guard your heart. Don’t fill it with things that bring you fear. Don’t allow people to do it either. There are all sorts of things the enemy provides for us to lose our footing; forwarded emails, facebook links, movies, television, and gossip to name a few. What may bother one person may not bother someone else. So don’t judge others and what they are doing, just work on you and what you can tolerate and keep your peace.
4. ♥ I watch my words and what I am saying.
The power of life and death are in the tongue. You actually have the power to speak life into yourself and others lives or you can speak death. If you are speaking doubt of what God can do then guess what? You will believe it and there goes your peace.
5. ♥ Take deep breaths…in– of his fragrance of peace..out– with the toxic negativity of bondage, fear, and doubt.
Picture the darkness leaving your spirit, soul, and body each time you breathe out. Picture His breath entering into you as you breathe in. Use your imagination. Get in a quiet place, shut you mind down and focus on Him, and take a little time to just breath. In, slowly, of His peace; and out slowly with all the toxins.
If you will practice these things you will find His peace. You might find there are more ways that will work for you as well. I invite you to share!
You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. Isaiah 26:3 amp.
We have a destination.
Our lives are meant to make a difference to all those He puts along the path of our journey through this life on earth we live in a world with evil and destruction abounding, which is all the more reason our eyes need to remain on Him and His purpose for us here on this earth. He has provided for us Kingdom living. On earth it takes faith to live in this Kingdom. In heaven we will see it all so clearly, including the King Himself.
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Cor. 12 NLT
We are in His service, friends!! We are citizens of a another land.
I have never gone to a funeral of a believer that I don’t close my eyes and try to visualize where they are right then. Can they see the people who are at their memorial? Or are they so caught up in their new world that they just don’t have time or desire to see what is going on back on earth? Are they walking with Jesus at that very moment? Are they reuniting with people and loved ones from years past?
It blows my mind to think of the possibilities of what could be happening with them at the very hour we are down here mourning their loss. I have to smile in the midst of my tears.
This is not to diminish the deep grief we feel at the loss of someone we treasure. The pain is so real and our losses are so great at these times. But, I wonder, if we really allowed ourselves to focus on where they went and the glorious possibilities of it all, if it would make our pain a little lighter.
I have been at bed sides of those who are dying. At the passing of one saint right in front of me I actually looked up to the ceiling knowing they had departed, and one time I even waved, as they took their last breath. I envied their adventure that had just begun.
But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. Phil 3 NLT
1. “I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone, which no one knows orunderstands except he who receives it.” Revelation 3
I have often wondered what my new name is….He has a special name for each of us…I never really liked my name much. So, I will be welcoming the revelation of my new name. I am sure it is a beautiful name and I would expect no less from my Lord.
2. “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.”Matthew 10–31
Yet we are indelibly imprinted in His heart.
3. “Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.”Isaiah 49:16
The picture of us is not only on His wall, but ON HIS HANDS!!! We never leave His thoughts. We were made for relationship. He is the lover of my soul. He is the lover of your soul.
The interesting part of this scripture is that it was His hands that were pierced through at Calvary for our ransom from the clutches of our enemy. Those scars purchased our freedom . Those piercings went right through the very place our names are written. Oh, the symbolism in that fact overwhelms me.
Our walls or boundaries we have up to stand against the enemy are continually before Him. We are not alone!! He stands with us. What bridegroom would leave his betrothed out there without defense to keep her enemy away?
He is my King and He intimately loves me with a love that earth cannot compare to. Ask Him for the revelation of these words to your own heart.
Ask Him to help you see the you He sees, and not the you that you have envisioned based on what happened to you….absolutely nothing will separate us from His love.
For more about Dixie’s ministry, visit www.ReflectionsOfGraceHome.com