Silence The Negative Voices At All Costs

“But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were

with him, and went in where the child was.”

Mark 5:14

Negativity is all around us. That’s a given.

But we don’t need to live it out in our lives. The enemy is trying to use it to bring us

down but we must not let him succeed. We need to fight against the negativity

that comes our way, the voices that say we are ugly and the voices that say we will

never amount to anything, that nobody will love us and so many more words that

we are told.

In the scripture above we see that Jesus had to do the same thing. He had arrived

at Jairus house to heal his daughter but the people in the room laughed and made

fun of him.

And what did Jesus do?

He chased them out of the room. He didn’t give negativity a chance.

We can’t give negativity a chance.

What is your environment like?

What are you watching, listening to and reading on a daily basis?

What king of thoughts do you have of yourself and your situation? Are they

positive or negative?

What kind of words do you speak everyday?

All these things need to be looked at if you want to change your environment, if you want to

change the negativity that comes your way.

Encourage yourself with the word of God.

Surround yourself with the right friends.

Change what you read and listen to, replace negative words with positive ones.

But do something. Don’t just let negativity infiltrate your life without fighting it.

Take the necessary steps to change your environment.

God has amazing things in store for you and He is with you every moment of your life.

Bless you friends

Rolain

Let Go Of Negative Labels

Throughout our lives we have been picking up labels from family, friends, teachers, coaches, you name it.

But this is the thing, the majority of the labels we picked up are not accurate and

at times downright destructive. We need to be careful what labels we have adopted

and from where.

Take Moses for example.

God called him to lead His people out of Egypt. So as He called him,

He gave assurances that He would be with him but there was one thing

that was giving Moses second doubts about his ability to carry out what

God had called him to do. And that thing was the label or labels he was holding

on to.

“But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past

or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”

Exodus 3:10

Instead of saying “yes Lord”.

He almost let the labels he had stop him from walking into what God had for him.

And also note, God knew the potential Moses had. He knew the great things He would

do through him but Moses didn’t see any of that because of the labels he held on to.

And that’s the danger of holding on to the wrong labels. They limit what we think

God can do and blind us to the opportunities available to us.

We need to measure up every label we have, to what God says about us. We measure

them up to His word. If words spoken to us are not in line with what God says in His Word

then it needs to go.

And we also need to be careful about what we say to ourselves. That’s what happened to

Moses. He may have told himself and believed he was slow of speech and not eloquent

and in his mind those labels disqualified him from doing what God told him to do.

You probably know yourself better than anyone on this planet but at the end of the day

you need to remember that you did not create you, God created you!

And because He created you He knows every little thing about you. There is nothing He

doesn’t know about you but you on the other hand you don’t have the full picture. You don’t have all

the information. There is stuff missing.

So stop with the “this is the way I am” statements.

Stop with the “I am clumsy, I am forgetful,

I can’t do this, I can’t do that” statements.

You don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle so why label yourself and make “absolute” statements

about yourself?

God is the only one who can do that so go to Him to tell who you are, what you can do and the

amazing opportunities waiting for you.

Ask Him for help as you do this. There is no way you are going to get rid of the negative labels

in your life by yourself. Ask Him to show you what negative words you are holding on to.

And ask Him to replace those words/labels with His truth, with His Word.

And as I close I want to end with a quote I read that I love. It says,

“Let no label stick unless it was put there by God.”

Have a great weekend friends!

Rolain

What Truth Are You Living By?

Some years back I took a course on Cognitive Psychology. It was a God-send for me because

prior to taking the course my mind was a mess. My thoughts were destructive, I had no self-esteem,

I didn’t think I could amount to anything and so many other destructive mental issues.

The core principle of the course is,

“We behave and act, not in accordance with the truth as the truth might be.

We behave and act in accordance with the truth as we believe it or perceive it to be.”

There were a lot of “truths” I had to unlearn that I had picked up growing up. And the course

helped me change those “truths”. Being a Christian doing the course was a huge benefit to

me because I had met the TRUTH so I was replacing the old “truths” with His Truth.

I share this because there are so many “truths” out there and not all truth is truth.

Where did you get the “truths” you are currently holding on to?

Are they based on the Word of God or are they based on something you read on the news,

on social media or something you watched on TV and the many other sources out there?

We need to be careful where we get our “truths”

Looking at the Word I think of Gideon.

His truth was,

“So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel?

Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my Father’s house.”

Judges 6:15

He grew up being told his clan was the weakest and was probably reminded that he was

the least. That’s the “truth” he adopted but it wasn’t true. God had another truth for

Gideon. And not just any truth but THE truth.

God’s truth for Gideon was that he was a mighty man of valor.

Man’s truth for Gideon was not God’s truth for him and that’s important to note.

God has a TRUTH for you that’s totally different to the truths out there. You don’t have to

live by the “truths” you have been given by people that tear you down, that tell you can’t

make it, that you will amount to nothing, that you have no future to look forward to and so

many other negative things. God has a better and greater truth for you.

It was a similar story for the woman with the issue of blood. (Luke 8: 43-48)

For twelve years she tried to find a cure to her ailment. But the answer was the same for

every doctor she went to. There was no cure for her no matter how much money she spent.

That was the “truth” she was given.

But one day she heard about Jesus and in faith decided to lay aside the “truth” she was

told for twelve years and got a hold of the real TRUTH. And once she did that she received

her healing.

The “truth” she had been told for twelve years was no match for Jesus. I don’t know how many

seconds it took to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment but that was enough to nullify the “truth”

she previously held. And that’s why it’s important to go the right source for truth.

The truth we find in Jesus is more powerful than every other “truth” out there.

His truth liberates and frees.

The wrong “truth” binds, instills fear, and limits God’s power in our lives.

So as I close I want to encourage you to take a look at the truths you are holding onto.

If it’s not helping you then it needs to go.

Look to Jesus who is TRUTH.

In Him we find real truth for every area of our lives.

Bless you

Rolain

What Do You Believe?

What you believe about yourself is stronger than the potential you have.

God has created you with incredible potential with the intention you use it all. But the beliefs you have about yourself is what matters the most. For example, you can have the potential to be an astronaut but if you believe you don’t have what it takes or you believe you can’t be an astronaut then that’s what will happen.

Our negative beliefs about ourselves stop us from using all the potential God has given us. But enough of theories. I have proof of this principle from the word of God so let’s get into it.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people. They had incredible potential indeed. God was with them. From the time He led them out of Egypt to the Promise land He was with them. They had never know defeat, their clothes and shoes never wore out, they had a cloud to lead them by day and fire by night. So talk about potential. They finally reached the promise land and something interesting happened. The spies that went and spied out the land had a report for the people:

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large.”

“But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

“We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Numbers 13: 26-33

Potential was not enough for the Israelites to obtain what God promised them. It boiled down to what they believed and what they believed stopped them from possessing the promise land save for Joshua and Caleb. They believed they couldn’t win. They believed they were grasshoppers. But remember, God had delivered them from the Egyptians, and looked after them in the desert.

That’s how powerful our beliefs are.

We need to take a long hard look at the beliefs we have. Where have we picked up the beliefs we currently hold? Are they from the word of God or from people around us? Our beliefs should be based on the word of God because the Word is truth. It doesn’t change and can’t be shaken. It is solid and is our foundation.

What you believe is important.

Let’s look at one more example. Gideon had so much potential in him. When the angel of the Lord appeared to him, he called him a mighty man of valor (Judges 6;1). That was the potential in him but for as long as Gideon could remember, he was made to believe something else. He was made to believe he was the least of the least which wasn’t true.

But the good news is that, God changed Gideon’s belief. The potential was always in him to be a mighty man of valor but work had to be done on his beliefs and when the belief changed he became what God created him to be! I love that.

I have had some crazy beliefs in the past about myself. Crazy, negative beliefs, but God has changed them. The outdated beliefs I held for so long have been changed and He continues to change them. Outdated, negative beliefs don’t change in a day. It takes time and it’s a process. God wants us to believe in Him. He wants us to believe in the promises and plans He has for us.

So as I come to the end of the post I want to encourage you to ask God to show you the beliefs that are holding you back and know that outdated, negative beliefs can be changed. God wants to help you.

God bless you friends.

The truth about failure

 

How do we respond to failure?

What kind of mindset do we adopt after we fail?

How we respond and the kind of mindset we should have when failure comes is so important

if we are going to grow and learn.

There is a train of thought out there that goes along the lines of, failing makes you a failure.

But is that true? Do our failures make us failures?

No it is not true. As long as we live on this earth we will have to deal with failure,

we will make mistakes, but those things do not need to dictate who we are as people or

what we are going to accomplish.

 

One of the most important questions we need to ask is, how does Jesus see us even though we

fail and make mistakes?

For the answer to that question we are going to look at Peter.

As you know he was a disciple of the Lord and loved him much. But one day before Jesus was

to be crucified, Peter was told he would deny the Lord.

Peter obviously denied it and declared his devotion and that he was ready to die with the Lord.

But as we all know Peter denied the Lord. He messed up big time. He failed Jesus and it seemed

like all was lost. How can anyone bounce back from that?

Imagine the headline in the newspapers the next day,

PETER DENIES JESUS!!

 

But let’s focus our attention on an interesting passage of scripture,

 

“Simon, Simon, satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you,

Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31

 

Jesus knew Peter would deny Him!

But instead of abandoning him or washing His hands of him, Jesus prayed for him and encouraged him.

Peter’s failure did not change the way Jesus saw him. It did not change the Lord’s plans for his life.

And this is important for us to understand. Even when you fail and make mistakes the Lord is with you.

He hasn’t abandoned or disowned you. Failure doesn’t mean the end of you.

It wasn’t the end of Peter.

 

It seemed like Peter’s story was over when he failed but we all know how powerfully he was used

in the creation of the early church. He was instrumental in the building of it.

And that’s how good the Lord is. Don’t allow your failures and mistakes to stop you in your tracks.

We are to grow and learn from our failures but never to stop and die.

Jesus has amazing things in store for you in the midst of failures. So because you are a son and daughter

of God you are not a failure but a victor and that’s the best news! 

 

On one last note, if you would like to get a copy of my devotional, click here. 

Blessings to you friends!

 

Rolain

 

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