Thinking out Loud

 

I am finding a new Table....God is preparing it for me!

It is the end of the year once again, time to get things in order. I like organization, but the one place that gets unorganized the most is my office space.  I make little notes of things I wonder about, or Bible verses to look up or to look closer at and at the end of the year I see half started lists of things.  I wonder why I start these things, that appear to be very beneficial, but somewhere along the line I stop making time for them.

It is actually funny what I learn about myself and what I must have been thinking at different times throughout the year when I find these little treasures. I found a note that said "I am not broken, I do not need fixed." Another that said, "Stop trying to please people, just keep pleasing God." That last one though, hmmm, we all fall short sometimes don't we. Being human isn't so fun when you think about it. We are not perfect, we make mistakes.  But we also have the ability to do good things. There have been times in my life when I have done good things with every good intention and yet I've still been unfriended or attacked by misunderstandings. It is sad actually that you think people that have been in your life your entire life would know you, yet really they only know their own concept of you from seeing you maybe once a year. Never taking the time to really know me, they make assumptions on a few short visits here and there.

I am a lover of books, oh, I love to read....yet I never seem to get the time to sit down and really enjoy a good book. Any book lover will tell you, that last sentence does not stop a true, die hard book lover from purchasing books.  I came across a few I had purchased and had yet to sit down and read them.  One grabbed my attention today, the title "Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table", by Louie Giglio. Wow! It was like God placed that book for me to come across it today, because in the last few months I've been dealing with some battles.  It is funny how these things happen, it is like, have you ever been dealing with something and then you pick up your devotional and at that very moment, the days reading is exactly what you are going through? That was what happened when I picked up this book.

 This sentence grabbed me, and hit me hard.  It said, "The Devil wants nothing more than to crush you. He wants to steal from you everything you value. He wants to kill everything in your life that is good. Ultimately, he wants to destroy you. If he can claim the victory over your mind, he can eventually claim the victory over your life."

That is powerful isn't it? He attacks our thoughts, and soon we can't seem to hush him and he has our entire life distorted in our minds.  Have you ever thought, "I am not good enough", "I will never be loved", "I don't look good enough", "I am not the right shape, weight, size", "My friends don't like me, they just use me when they want something"? 

 God doesn't send you those thoughts, those are not things he would say or tell you to think. That is the Devil and his weaseling way to take over your mind and soon take over your life. Satan uses people to destroy you sometimes too, and sometimes the damage can't be repaired with those people. Satan resides in some people unbeknownst to them, they go about life not even realizing the hurt they are spreading around. Satan will use friends and even family to destroy you, they become toxic to you. The closer you are to Jesus, the more the attacks happen.

We all need to be more aware of who we are, how we are and how we treat others. I know I am the Daughter of a King, yet I still have allowed those thoughts of not being enough or lovable control my thoughts because of toxic people Satan has allowed to put these thoughts in my head by their actions.

 I am the Daughter of the King!!!! I am enough!!! I am more than enough, I am the sparkle in his eye. And loved, Oh my gosh, I am soooo loved.....Like he sent his Son to die for me....yeh....for ME?! How can I not know I am worthy of love, how can I feel less than, when Jesus died on the cross for me! (*side note, he died for you too)

Satan is powerful, he gets in there and he fights to take over all of us......But you know what? God is more powerful than Satan. 

On the back of this book, "Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at your Table" it says this, "It's time to win the battle of your mind.... You don't have to let negative thoughts control your life. You don't have to allow the Enemy to influence your thinking. You have power through Jesus Christ to take control of your thoughts and emotions. Jesus invites you to a table that he has prepared for you - a table where the Enemy is not invited."

Go grab this book, I am sitting down, taking the time to read it now, because I think God placed it for me to find today, right were it was in my file cabinet, a most unusual place....I have no clue why I would have put it in the cabinet instead of the shelf....Hmm, God works in mysterious ways doesn't he.

Well, I am getting a new Table.....God is preparing it for me, and the Enemy and those he uses are not invited.

Be Blessed,

The Happy Farm Wife