Your truth or His Truth

by Spiritual Grinder GirlBlog PostsPosted on Comments are Disabled

I love that I have a God who relentlessly seeks me to speak truth to me, not my truth, but His truth.  The current culture encourages people to seek and speak “your truth” but speaking “your truth” is simply a lie dressed up in a pretty bow to get people to focus on self and take focus away from focusing on God and His truth. 

It is easy to get drawn into our current cultural trend of speaking your truth, especially when going through challenging situations where we feel we are wronged in some way, whether real or perceived.  But speaking “your truth” without making sure it is aligned with God’s truth is a slippery slope to take. 

When we speak our truth without checking to make sure it aligns with God’s truth, we risk hurting others, hurting ourselves, and acting outside of our own core values. None of us are perfect and we all speak impulsively at times but there is a difference between occasionally speaking impulsively and speaking impulsively every time we get upset (frustrated, angry, sad).  

Occasionally speaking impulsively, but then realizing what was said to others or ourselves is not aligned with the word and choosing to seek forgiveness, truly work to not do the same thing again, and allowing others to hold us accountable is acting out of a repentant heart and a desire to seek holiness by transforming ourselves to be like Christ.

The opposite of this would be what our culture preaches- speak your truth no matter what the cost.  Our culture tells us that our feelings are always true, and that we have a right to tell someone how we feel in any way that we want as, you deserve to be heard and treated well. 

Do you see the deception in this view? The devil uses deception in clever ways- he masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).  What is interesting about this verse is that it is referring to false teachers who have great knowledge of God, teach the word, and insist that they are superior to others in their teaching. Paul states in this passage (v12-15) that He is not surprised they are speaking against his teaching and saying their teaching is holier. 

Like Paul, I am not surprised that culture, to include some self-proclaimed Christians with great knowledge, are believing, teaching, and defending this falsehood.  While God indeed wants people to be heard and treated well, He wants the words that come out of our mouths, our actions, and our thoughts to align with His word.  So, some general questions to ask yourself are, do your words, actions, and thoughts consistently align with the word?  Would Jesus say the things you are saying? Would He do the things you are doing? Would he think about the things you think about for the length of time you think about them?

Here are some of the questions I often ask myself after difficult conversations with others:

  • FIRST, ask God to reveal the truth to you regarding the situation. Seek Him first, as He will reveal His truths to you.
  • Is what I am thinking and focusing on right now aligned with God’s word? I try to make it a regular practice to take my thoughts captive and bring them under the obedience to Christ, as I don’t want to give the devil a foothold over my thoughts. He is a creeper in people’s thought life and will always try to get a foothold in this area.
  • Am I focusing on goodness or evil? The devil wants us to focus on how we were wronged, how unfair it is, that we deserve better, etc.
  • Were words said to me and the corresponding behaviors aligned with what God would say or do?  The devil likes to use the words of others to speak against you and what God says about you. Words are powerful and he wants to use the words of others to deceive, accuse, and condemn you and shift your beliefs about yourself away from what God says about you.  Evaluate what others say to you with the word of God- regardless of the persons status or religious title or knowledge.
  • Were the actions of others occasional or a pattern over time? If it is a pattern, consider if perhaps boundaries need to be put in place, not to punish them, but to guard your heart.  If the person is keeping you from the purposes God has given you, boundaries need to be put in place.
  • How did I respond, and did it align with the word? If it didn’t align with the word, is it occasional, or do I exhibit a pattern for this behavior? Be careful with this one, as the devil will want you to think you “always” respond poorly.  If you responded poorly in a situation and you are uncertain if it is a pattern of behavior, speak with some close friends who know you well for input. If in the difficult conversation you had, the person told you that you always behave this way, but they have a pattern of poor behavior, be sure to ask other close friends, even if the person is considered a “good friend”.
  • If it is a pattern, what do I need to do to change. Y’all, all I have to say about this is accountability is key. Find a close friend and talk to them about what you want to change and make a plan on how they can help to hold you accountable.

What I love about God is that when we seek Him, He answers- even when I am messy in my seeking Him. This morning I was seeking Him regarding some difficult conversations I had recently, and my mind was all over the place. I was having a hard time focusing but I have given God my yes and am committed to seeking him so I pressed on. I was jumping from being in the word, to praying, to praising, to back to the word, to journaling, to listening to sermons, to praying – y’all- I was all over the place and all in a short period of time.

It was messy but I was relentless, as I know he will show up.  And just like that I heard as clear as ever, resist the devil and he WILL flee. Yes!! I literally said this out loud with a smile/laugh on my face (b/c I like to laugh at the devil’s schemes) and Boom- just like that all my all over the place thoughts ceased. Saying the word out loud is powerful- it’s your sword and the number 1 weapon against the devil.  Then everything fell into place and more and more revelations came- and this blog came as God is going to use what the enemy meant for evil for good.  God is so good!

If your thoughts are running wild and you can’t seem to calm your them, it is ok, God loves the wild ones. Keep seeking, relentlessly. He sees you and He loves when you earnestly seek Him, even when you feel like you can’t seek Him or you feel like your sucking at seeking Him. When you lay it all down and just keep seeking, He sees that you have chosen Him. He sees that you are choosing to be transformed by Him.

He wants you to choose Him more than you can imagine- even if it doesn’t look perfect. He knows exactly where you are and what you are going through and your relentless all over the place ways of choosing Him in that moment, are perfect for Him in that moment and He WILL answer. He wants to reveal the truth to you, as the truth sets the wild ones free, and isn’t that what all of us wild ones want? ~Spiritual Grinder Girl~

So humble yourself before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Stuck

by Spiritual Grinder GirlBlog PostsPosted on Comments are Disabled

I set this site up with every intention of writing at the very least weekly. Words had been flowing prior to the set up but then it all stopped, like I had a block. I was stuck. It is frustrating to feel stuck and to feel like I can’t move forward in what I am trying to do, especially when I know that God has prompted me to do something, like this blog. Knowing that God is not a God who would ever want me to feel stuck and knowing that He will always provide me with everything that I need to carry out what He wants me to do carry out, I shifted from focusing on being stuck to focusing on leaning into God and reverently pursuing Him.

Pursuing Him has been unexpectedly fun. I’m not sure why I always thought that doing all that I can to surrender to Him would be anything less. Perhaps it was my historical “religious” assumptions based on being around many friends who were catholic or perhaps it was just my own stubbornness- my illogical ingrained unconscious thoughts that I needed to take care of myself and pull myself up by my bootstraps (what are bootstraps btw?). 

My father always told me to not depend on anyone for anything and I have always admired my father greatly. It’s interesting to me how I can unknowingly allow some of the things my parents said to me shape my behaviors as an adult, even after many years of sorting through the obvious things that they said to me in haste. But the beauty of God is that He is the perfect father, and He graciously reminds me over and over who I am and whose I am and He removes the scales from my eyes to see His truth and not mine.

The truth is that I must willingly surrender and allow God to lead all areas of my life, both the small and big areas, and fully depend on Him.  He doesn’t want me to depend on myself and instead he wants me to lay down all my burdens, allow him to give me rest, and allow Him to teach, show, and guide me (Matthew 11:28-29).  He comforts me and renews my hope and joy when I doubt (Psalm 94:22). He watches over me (Psalm 95:7). He protects me and rescues me from the wicked and shines His light on me and gives me joy (Psalm 97:10-11). He never fails and his word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11).

Back to feeling stuck. In the John 10 it says that the enemy is here is to steal, kill, and destroy but that He came to give us eternal life and that no man shall pluck or snatch us out of his hand.  Hear me when I say the enemy’s plan is to stop us in our tracks and divert us from the plan God has for us, which includes sharing His word and our testimony. Feeling stuck is simply the enemy’s attempt to stop and divert us from God’s plan.  The enemy does not want us to have life and certainly does not want us to assist in leading others to experience the love of God and have life.

So, what do you do when you feel stuck? Surrender to God (stop being stubborn!) and CHOOSE to take your thoughts captive and bring them under the obedience of Christ. How do you take your thoughts captive and bring them under the obedience of Christ? First, recognize the schemes of the enemy so that you can rise up and CHOOSE to lean into God. To recognize the plans of the enemy, make sure that you are in the word so that you can know the truth versus the lies of the enemy.

Once you recognize that your thoughts are not truth, you must immediately choose to shift your focus from feeling stuck and thinking of all the reasons why you are stuck to focusing on God and what He says is true about you and/or your circumstances.  To start, choose to focus on His goodness. Choose to remember all that He has done for you, to remember all the times He been there for you, and all the times He has rescued you.  Focus on that He has plans for your life, that He orders your steps, and that His word does not return void. Remember that His goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life and shift your focus from “feeling” stuck to knowing that you have an all-powerful God who has overcome the enemy and through Christ, has given you the power to overcome the enemy with the blood of the lamb and the word of His testimony.

We already have victory, but we must choose to claim this victory and operate in His power. When we make the choice to immediately take our thoughts captive and bring them under the obedience of Christ, we are choosing God and surrendering our way for His way and God honors us when we surrender to Him. 

I feel it is important to note that even though I immediately took my thoughts captive and brought them under the obedience of Christ, I wasn’t then immediately able to write freeingly again.  Over the last 2 months, I have written some and never posted it or wrote partial posts and never finished them, but I didn’t beat myself up over this or get angry about not being able to write easily and instead, I choose to hold fast to all that God was and is still doing in my life and find joy in the journey.  I choose to focus on His truths and choose to believe that His plans will always prevail. ~Spiritual Grinder Girl~