Tag Archives: lies

shining light in dark places.

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The hard days don’t come that often anymore, but they do come. Sweeping in and leaving me lost and trembling. The voice says, “It’s only because you’re lazy and don’t have enough money. If only you had ___________ then you would have what you desire.”

The words that fill the blank vary on the day but they all spell the same thing: F.A.I.L.U.R.E.

I’ve learned not to debate the lies anymore. It only leaves my ear tuned to the negative, only leaves my emotional state teetering on depression.

There is only one thing to do in the face of failure: cling to what is living and breathing and lasting.

My hurts are only bearable when they are buried in the Word.

On facebook last week, one of you mentioned memorizing Psalm 119. I opened there. The longest chapter in the Bible. Did you know that almost every single verse references the Word of God?

  • Your word.
  • Your law.
  • Your statutes.
  • Your promise.
  • Your commands.
  • His way.
  • His precepts.
  • His decrees.

It’s like one long song that points out the wonder of the voice of God.

 

“I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” vs. 32

“My comfort in my suffering is this: your promise has preserved my life.” vs. 50

“You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.” vs. 114

In the reading, in the loud words flowing through the quiet house, the lies are silenced.

The calluses on my palm scrape across the whisper-thin pages, evidence that “lazy” isn’t the correct term.

The glitter of my diamond engagement ring, nested in beside the wedding band, reminds me of the man who gave them to  me. The one who would sell anything and everything to take me to whatever doctor I wanted or needed.

And beside the diamond is the pearl. The one my parents gave me on my twenty-second birthday, days before I flew to Brazil for the first time. The gift with the note,

“You’re being made beautiful through the pain.”

Oh, that’s right. 

He is. And His Word still shines light into dark places.

Join me in reading Psalm 119 today?
Then come share your favorite verse?

the greatest lie Satan will ever tell you

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You’ve heard it, I’m sure. Whispered in the dark of night or under the bright light of day or into the desperate places of your heart.

I’ve heard it in crowds of people and locked in my bedroom with the curtains pulled tightly shut.

I’ve felt it in the deepest places of my pain and seen it echoed through my sorrows.

Sometimes it slips in quiet and makes itself comfortable on the edge of my mind. Other times it is so loud I cringe as it reverberates through my life.

But I hear it. Over and over.

It sounds like me talking but it’s really him. The Enemy of my soul.

The words?

“I’m all alone.”

Sometimes other things link to it. I’m all alone in my pain. I’m all alone in my hurt. I’m all alone in my life. I’m all alone with no job. I’m all alone with no friends. I’m all alone in my marriage. I’m all alone in ___________. God left me all alone.

And here is the reason the Enemy loves this lie:

If you believe you’re all alone, no one can empathize with you.

If you believe you’re all alone, then no one is there to help you pick up the broken pieces of your life.

If you believe you’re all alone, no one can call you to account for your sin because “they don’t understand your pain”.

And if you believe you’re all alone, dear friends, no one can give you grace.

I know a beautiful woman who faced a horrendous tragedy. The birth of a stillborn son.

It was heart-shattering.

Week after week she sat in my Sunday School class saying, “I don’t want to be here but I am.” And week after week she had to fight the lie with every possible weapon. She had to choose to say, “I’m not all alone” even when it felt like she was.

The day came when she whispered, “I know I should be over this by now…” and because she was there and fought the lie, even when it felt like truth—she sat in a room full of women who “didn’t know” and grace poured over her.

“You just buried a baby,” someone whispered in return, “I don’t think you need to ‘get over it’.”

We hurt with her and cried with her and tasted grace together.

When she was pregnant again, my heart filled and my prayers deepened. And when she told the story of her son crying as he was born and nothing sounding so beautiful—of the doctor and nurses and her husband all crying and how she couldn’t because all she could think was that he was alive! everything in me danced.

And this girl who has never buried a baby and that girl who has never faced infertility—together we’re not alone.

When I reach out from my pain to offer her comfort in hers—and when she looks up from hers to comfort me—

Satan’s lies are buried in an avalanche of truth.

                                               And none of us are really alone.        

One of God’s greatest gifts to his children is community.    

What have you done lately to foster community?

linking up with Life-Unmasked
and Women Living Well