Tell (Yourself) The Truth

I was driving home from my vacation, pondering. As beneficiaries of the new covenant, our hearts are okay. Our bodies are okay, too, since they generally do only what we tell them to do. Unquestionably, our biggest problem is our mind­which is generally responsible for what our body does.

Apparently this was something the Lord wanted me to really "get," because that evening, after I arrived home, I got some first­hand experience, and a few days later I started reading a book I had bought while on vacation, which had one big section about thoughts, and how they effect us.

A brief summary of pages and pages of this book would be: Our minds are making thousands of statements to us every day. Unless we've begun the process of "taking every thought captive," most of these statements are lies. In order to live a truly successful life, we must learn to tell ourselves the truth.

This is the real­life example the Lord used to demonstrate this truth to me: For the past four months, my life, my business, my emotions, and my house have become increasingly out of control, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. For the first few weeks, I tried to handle things, but as time went on, my refrain became, "I can’t do this; this is too much for me; I need help."

I am not real happy to admit that that was an excuse. I was asking the Lord for help, and since I was asking and He wasn’t giving, I have to assume I didn’t need what I was asking for-it wasn’t the best thing for me. (One of the truths that we must learn to speak to ourselves is that the Lord knows what is best for us, and He does not have a mean, vindictive nature under any circumstances.)

So as I cried out my frustration to Him upon arriving home to the exact same mess I had left, He clearly and simply told me to put boundaries on my business, and confine most of my business activities and thoughts to certain hours. Oh. Okay. And hot on the heels of that He nudged me to spend a particular portion of my day on household "chores." Oh. Good idea. This, I knew, would leave plenty of time, every day, for me to pursue some other things that the Lord had already been talking to me about. And the next thing I knew, I was thinking, "I can do this."

I had heard God’s voice, and I had made the decision to follow it. Immediately, I felt better. A week later, my house isn’t such a mess, my business affairs aren’t so chaotic, and I’m definitely not depressed.

The truth is not, "I can get caught up in one day," nor is the truth, "I can’t do this." The truth is, "I can do what the Lord is telling me to do."

It pays huge dividends to tell yourself the truth.

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