The “I’ve Always Felt This Way” Deception

 Most of my life of I felt inadequate.   These feelings went all the way back to my childhood.  Though I achieved quite a bit in life, deep down, I was convinced this was who I was… Mark, the inadequate.

My dad could fix and build anything and so could my younger brother, but not me.  I could hardly hammer a nail or saw a straight board.  Each time my dad enlisted us to help him with one of his new projects, like adding a room on to our house, I kept hearing in my head, “Something is wrong with me.  I’m not like my dad and brother.”  Little did I know at the time, this was the enemy was putting thoughts in my vulnerable child’s mind.  Each time we all worked together, they seemed to do everything just right and I did most of them wrong.  My feelings of inadequacy only grew.  It also happened in other areas of life.  Through it all, I kept getting stamped with an identity of being inadequate and every year it seemed to be confirmed more.  Do you see how feelings follow whatever thoughts we believe?

Many years later, when my Heavenly Father began to reveal to me who I am in Christ from the Scriptures, I was able to finally confront those feelings and the beliefs behind them with Biblical truth.  As I did, they were eventually replaced with peace and a confidence that I could do anything that God wanted me to do, as long as Jesus lived through me.  Philippians 4:19 says it this way.  For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. NLT  I still get those thoughts and feelings some days, but now I have Biblical truth to hold up against them.

Many people today are looking to their feelings to tell them who they are.  And if they have felt them most of their lives, they may conclude, “That is just who I am because I’ve always felt that way.”  Yet, what they don’t realize is that those feelings are being driven by lies Satan planted in their minds over and over, often going back to when they were children. 

The Accuser often plants these lies through how our family treated us growing up.   He may also plant those lies from terrible rejections we have experienced, including abuse.  Or, he can just use a normal situation, putting his twisted spin on it for us to agree with.  He will take any opportunity he can find with you, hoping you agree with him! John 10:10 records Jesus saying, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

It has become mainstream culture to define yourself based on how you’ve felt much of your life.  We see it on television, in the movies, in school, at work and in some churches.  We also see it every week in our counseling, conferences, training and groups.  By the time they get to us, many are being overwhelmed and terrified by these thoughts and feelings that they believe define them.

Feelings are a gift from God.  They are one part of our soul.  The other two parts are our mind and will.  Feelings were given by God so we could experience love, joy, peace and more.  The scary thing about feelings, which are attached to thoughts, is that they seem like they are telling us the truth, even if they are not.

When two of my cousins were teens, they thought they would prank their mom one day while at the community pool.   The oldest one got on the phone and frantically told her mom that her younger sister had drowned in the pool.  My aunt went into hysterics.  She truly believed her child was dead.  But it was a lie. My cousins thought it would be funny.   Her feelings didn’t know it was a lie, they simply responded to the thoughts in her mind that she was believing.  By the way, my cousin quickly told my aunt the truth, realizing her mom might die from a heart attack if she didn’t!  

Be aware of your thoughts and feelings and don’t let your feelings define who you are.  Let the Biblical truth of who you are in Christ define whether your thoughts and feelings are accurate.  

Sometimes, we need someone to help us let God show us the lies that our feelings are using to define us, that disagree with what God says about us.  Go to our website and see if we can help you, no matter where you live.  www.GraceLifeInternational.com

What are you going to believe this week as the Biblical truth about who you are?  What you feel?  Or, who your Heavenly Father says you are, when He transferred you from the sinner identity in Adam and into your saint identity IN Christ, giving you a NEW PAST!  Romans 5:19 is as clear as it gets on this topic when it says, For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One, the many will be made righteous. NASB

Your Identity In Christ

Because I am a child of God…

I Am Acceptable

Accepted by God   Rom. 15:7

Righteous  II Cor.5:21

A Saint   I Cor. 1:2 Eph. 1:1

Complete in Christ Col. 2:10

Not Condemned Rom 8:1

Completely Forgiven Col 2:13

I Am Significant

His Masterpiece   Eph. 2:10

Chosen   Eph. 1:4

God’s Treasure   Matt. 13:44-46

Seated in Heaven    Eph. 2:6

A New Creation   II Cor. 5:17

Designed by God   Ps. 139:13-16

I Am Loved

Dearly Loved    I Thess. 1:4

Beloved   Rom. 9:25 (Used more in the NT to describe us than any other term)

Loved Like Jesus Is   Jn. 17:23, 26

Jesus’ Friend   Jn. 15:15

Hidden with Christ   Col. 3:3

Can’t Stop God’s Love   Rom. 8:37-39

As you talk to your Father each day, remind yourself of who you are in Christ and ask Jesus to fill you with His love and to live through you in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

God is Real when Life is Hell

There are chapters in your life story when all you can say is "life is hell."  I'm talking about not just one bad circumstance but one on top of another and another and another before you can catch your breath from the first one! Or, it may be a time when what you are dealing with goes on and on and on - for months or maybe even for years, with little change or resolution. My family has been experiencing both of those to some degree. So, if you are there or you have been, as they say, "I feel ya."

 

For any of you who do not have any kind of real relationship with Jesus, my heart really goes out to you. In fact, I don't know how you make it through those tough times! No wonder people medicate themselves for the stress and pain they experience by abusing alcohol, drugs, food, etc. 

 

Please don't misunderstand me.   I don't want to come off as saying there is anything wrong with legitimately needing medication for depression,  anxiety, etc.. It may offend our religious thinking when Proverbs 31:6 says, Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. (AKJV) These were the medications of the day when it was written.

 

It may very well be that some people need appropriate medication for them to understand if they know Jesus or not. But this particular issue I'm writing to you about, goes deeper than that. It's about the ability to tap into our own flimsy strength and into an inner strength far beyond our own.  

 

For those of us who have Jesus living in us, He is the only One we can rely on when life is hell. And He is real.  Another way of saying it is, Jesus can be our inner heaven when life on earth is hell. Does that mean we should always feel peaceful and wear a smile on our face? No...we can rely on God in us and still cry sometimes or feel overwhelmed. Yet, deep in our spirit, there can be peace even when our emotions are swirling like a tornado, when there seems to be no end in sight for our problems.

 

One of the great things about the New Covenant is, it teaches us that we are united to the entire Trinity through our faith in Jesus. We were created for this. It's what God had in His heart and mind from the beginning. He created us so we could enter into the same fellowship (intimacy) with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...the same as they have had between themselves, for all eternity. And we can also be supported by the fellowship of other believers as well.

 

One of the temptations during great times of hell on earth is to think we have to be religious.  What I mean by this is, thinking we just need to pray and say all of the right things. It's so easy to put ourselves under this kind of erroneous religious expectation, believing it's the spiritual thing to do.

 

The truth is this. Because we are united to God, Who sits on a throne of grace and not judgment, we can come to Him with all of our raw emotions, doubts, fears, anger, etc., or when we just don't have the words to pray at all. Do you know where that usually leads us?...into a place of honest trust....this allows God to draw us into a deeper fellowship with Him, in whom we are united.  Could this be part of what it means to, cast all of our cares on Him because He cares for us? (1 Peter 5:7)

 

Somehow, God remains both sovereignly in control of our circumstances, while at the same time, being relational and loving. He can use His these difficulties to draw us deeper into a fellowship with Him that we could not know otherwise. I'm reminded of this wonderful Scripture. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1: 9b-10 NLT)

 

As we are comforted by God in our own personal hell, we are able to let go of our smug judgementalism of those who suffer their own hell on earth and, instead, freely give the same comfort that God has comforted us with. (2 Corinthians 1:3)

 

If you are reading this and you don't have a genuine relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, invite Him into your life, to live in you, to forgive you. That doesn't mean if you do, everything will improve in your difficulties, but it does mean you will be able to face them relying on Him and not yourself and He will never leave you or forsake you.

 

If you do have Jesus in you, be honest with Him about how you feel and don't turn away from Him. Turn to Him. He is more than important to you. He is enough for you.   He is in you. Ask Him to send some other Christians to support you too, if you don't already have them in your life.

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

Resurrection Reset!

                                  

Have you ever wished you could push the "reset" button on your life? Probably all of us have had that thought after a major failure. If you've ever felt that way, I have some awesome news for you!   God already hit the reset button and you can celebrate it this Easter!

It pleased God to reset who you were by crucifying you and burying you with Jesus on the cross. He crucified the identity you received from Adam, of being spiritually dead, a sinner, and shameful. (Romans 6:6) Then, it pleased God to bury that messed up you with Jesus when He was buried and He left that person, you didn't like, in the grave. (Romans 6:3) Good Friday truly is good because Jesus was crucified and buried and so were you!

God was also pleased to hit the reset button when He included you in Jesus' resurrection. God did not raise a dead Jesus, nor did He raise a messed up you. He resurrected you as a completely different person in your spirit, the place of your true identity. Ephesians 2:4-5. You are now, today, at your core, a child of God, a new creation, the righteousness of God, a saint and more. You are a lot more than you may think and a much better you, than you may think.

It pleased God to give you a new past, a new present and a new future in Him. Your past in Adam was erased and replaced with Jesus' past. Your future in Adam and of hell was erased and replaced with Jesus' future and heaven. Your present was replaced with the daily presence of God, in you and of you, with a new pure, pristine, amazing identity in Him.

A man, I once knew, who was addicted to cocaine, started believing in his own resurrection reset and overcame his addiction.  How?  He realized he wasn't an addict in Christ but an awesome son of God.

I met another man at a pastors' conference where I spoke, whose entire future was remade when he realized his past no longer defined him.  He placed his faith in Jesus' past and future defining him. He ended up marrying a fantabulous Christian woman as a result and now, they have three beautiful children.

Don't let your past be the defining moment of your life. Instead, let Jesus' resurrection define you as you embrace your resurrection reset!  We have much to celebrate. 

Believe it!  It's the Gospel!

Live Free in Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!