“It will be a lifelong struggle for her.” 

The words of my friend hung in the air and hit me in the stomach.  She was speaking of a sin issue, and too many of us talk in these terms. 

“He will never overcome this sin.”
“Mom has always been that way.  She’ll never change.”
“He’ll never become a Christian.  He is too set in his ways.”

These are confessions, but are they true?  We have considered our confessions over our circumstances and been challenged to speak in terms of faith and hope.  Now we think about the words we speak words over one another.  Are we speaking words of life and truth? 

When we declare statements like the ones above, what have we done with the words of Jesus?:

“I came to set the prisoners free.” 
(”The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me…He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:18-19))

“I will give you hope and a future.” 
(” ‘For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ” Jeremiah 29:11)

“I restore and recreate, exchanging your old life for a new one.”
(”If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old is gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17))

We have all heard that it is a terrible crime to speak words of death over children, such as “You will never measure up”,  “You don’t have what it takes”, or “You will never be as good as your sister.”  However, things we would never tell a child, we speak to ourselves and others on a daily basis.  Remember, life and death is in the power of the tongue.   What “adult” disbeliefs are we confessing?  What false confessions have been touching our lips?

Oftentimes we are hardest on ourselves.  

“I am irreversibly damaged.”

“I am sinful and dirty.” 

“I am unloved.”  

For those of us who battle thoughts like these, may we be directed to hear God’s heart:

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.”  (Eph. 1:4-5) 

“Do not call anything impure that God has called clean.” (Acts 10:15)

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!”  (I John 3:1) 

“You are my son [daughter] whom I love;  With you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22)

I see in Scripture a call to speak life + hope + encouragement over each other, not despair.  And this most certainly applies to ourselves.  Make an effort to identify the false confessions you are making over yourself, and guard yourself from this as you would a little child.  Challenge yourself to walk in the light of the truth about yourself.  Wash yourself in the water of God’s Word and listen to who He says you are.  Declare it over yourself, first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and as needed throughout the day.  Believe it for those in your life, and take the opportunity to speak faith and truth over them. 

Sisters, it is time for True Confessions.

Meditate: “Finally, [sisters], whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).

“Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Heb. 3:13).

Consider: What false confessions are we speaking over one another?  Over ourselves? 

Listen:  “You and I” by Shane & Shane (lyrics below)

Artist: Shane & Shane Album: An Evening With Shane & Shane Year: 2005 Title: You And I

Print Correct

Clean I call you clean
I came to clean you and it’s done
Here’s a call to all who’ve
Felt disqualified to run
Pleasures flowing here and there
From my right hand
What’s mine is yours
Come behold all of who I am

You and I will run
You and I will run forever
All is done
You and I will run

Come with what you do not have
And buy what’s undeserved
Feast and drink, the bounty’s great
I know you hear
But have you heard
Have you heard

Clean!
I’ve called you clean!
“I am dirty”
Clean!
“So unworthy”
Clean!
“Dirty”
That’s what I’m wanting

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21)

When you hear the words “true confessions”, you may think of something like my friend Heidi.  She has a very precious 9-month old Pete on her hip and a very positive pregnancy stick in her hand.  Her true confession?  Someone forgot the birth control.
 
This time, however, I want to consider true confessions in a different light.  What is a confession but simply telling the truth?  And therefore I guess a “true confession” is a bit redundant, but stick with me.

All day everyday, you and I make confessions.  We speak out loud, we make acknowledgments, we agree or disagree with circumstances in our lives.  We make declarations of our perceived reality.

My concern is that these confessions or declarations be…true. Allow me to illustrate.  During the course of the day, do you say things such as,
“I’m never going to get out of debt.”
“This organization will never grow.”
“There is no way to put a quick end to this war.”

There are several problems with statements like these.  They are discouraging, hopeless, and, perhaps most worrisome, they are definitive. 

First, statements like these leave no room for God.  They speak only of what can be seen, what is visible with the eye.  “But with God all things are possible.”  We must never approach our life with a merely human perspective.  God wants to transform every area of our life.  He wants to bring a miracle to everything we touch.  We must make room for GOD in our everyday thinking and speaking.

Statements like this are direct contradictions to His Word.  The Bible tells us:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13 )
“His mercies are new every morning…in Christ are new beginnings.” (Lam. 3:23)
“He performs miracles…He divided the sea and led them through.” (Psalm 78:12-13)
We need to know His Word and have it so sharp in our minds and hearts that we are able to speak words of hope and belief over ourselves.

This is so urgent because…Do you realize that to speak doubt into a situation can negatively reinforce that situation and even encourage it to happen?  There is a reason God instructs us to use our tongue to speak life and not death.  There is creative power in the words that we speak, just as with a word, He created the very universe.  Christ has given us power to “say to this mountain ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt. 17:20).  His Word is filled with calls to have faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed, because our circumstances will be altered accordingly.  “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Mt. 9:29).  We can change the seemingly unchangeable by speaking words of faith and confidence in our God.  This can happen through prayer or by the very words that we confess out loud. 

We must learn to direct our words effectively and with power.  They will literally carve a path for our life if we will use them well. 

Then this is what we confess.  Jesus is Who He says He is.  He is our Hope, He is our Rescuer, He is our Defender, He is our All-Things-New.  Fill in the blank.  Whatever we need Him to be in our situation, we confess it. 

Today, practice declaring truth instead of doubt or despair over your circumstance.  Declare GOD over your circumstance.  Try a few true confessions of your own.  And let the Sky City Girls know how it goes.

[In this post we consider how to make True Confessions over our circumstances.  Next time we will be challenged to make True Confessions over our very selves.  Stay tuned.]

All Sky City Girls are invited to a Spa Night of Relaxation and Beautification on Friday, July 28th at 8pm.   Join us at the Loft at Mount Paran Church of God in the Student Life Center as we spend an evening  cultivating gentle spirits and good cuticles.  See you there!

Directions: http://mountparan.com/directions.asp 

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes?”  Matthew 6:25

More than your body, more than your clothes?  If you watched the India.Arie video in our last post, you heard that you are not your hair.  You are not your skin.  You are the soul that lives within.  

But this goes against everything we see on a daily basis in the media and in the magazines at the grocery store checkout and on the beach.  To be honest, it goes against  much of what we ourselves believe about beauty.  How can BEAUTY, the captivating allure of a woman, come - not from the body - but from an invisible place, from her soul?

I Peter 3:3-5  “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.  For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.”

Beauty that comes from our “inner self” is first of all, unfading.  This is a relief, because all efforts to beautify oneself externally have the same downfall – they don’t last.  Exercise, tanning, highlights, makeup, cellulite treatment, you name it….it must all be repeated, reapplied, maintained, and redone, because the body is fading away.  Over time, despite the grandiose efforts we make to preserve and glorify it, our body is on a downward slope that will ultimately end in the ground..  “All come from dust, and to dust all return” (Ecclesiastes 3:20).  It is the hard truth.

“Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting…” Proverbs 31:30

But there is a beauty that will last, that is unfading. ..Inner beauty.  The unfading beauty is that of a “gentle and quiet spirit.”  This verse used to trouble me, I will confess.  As an outspoken and ‘strong personality’, I felt as though I was counted out for this gentleness and a quiet spirit.  But this passage is speaking of something higher than our personality types or whether we are extroverted or introverted. 

Rather, a gentle and quiet spirit is the spirit that resides in a place of rest.  Of peacefulness.  Of deep and quiet hope.  Of 100% assurance that no matter what comes our way, we will be secure and safe and okay.  A spirit that is anchored against the wind.  A spirit that is at home in its own skin.  A spirit that does not need to prove anything or conquer situations or dominate the people around us.  A spirit that puts its entire trust in GOD and not in herself.  A spirit that can breathe easy and sleep like a baby, for it is at complete rest.  A spirit that says, “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold;  I shall not be greatly shaken.” (Psalm 62:2)

“For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.” (verse 5)

Such a spirit is “of great worth in God’s sight.” 

Such a spirit recognizes God as the Source of Life and not ourselves.

Such a spirit ‘gets it’…and in turn, is made Beautiful.

Have you ever seen a woman, who despite her physical makeup, is confident and peaceful and full of life-giving joy?  This is the gentle and quiet spirit that God prizes.  As we cultivate this spirit, this inner beauty, we will find that not only does God value it, but others do, too.  For this is TRUE beauty.

“Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

Lord, may it be so with us, your daughters.  Give us beauty that comes from within.

Feedback:  Have you observed this beauty in a woman?  What does it look like?  How do others respond to her inner beauty?
What is holding you back from cultivating your inner beauty?

Listen:  This week, download and enjoy “Beautiful” by Bethany Dillon.  The lyrics can be found here:
http://www.lyricsdomain.com/2/bethany_dillon/beautiful.html