Refer to Step 2: I commit to stop living my life in pursuit of self-defeating behavior.
Many of us prefer to stay at the threshold of the Christian life instead of going on to construct a soul in accordance with the new life God has put within. We fail because we are ignorant of the way we are made. We put things down to the devil instead of our own undisciplined natures. Think what we can be when we are roused!
—Oswald Chambers—
The single greatest enemy to our recovery is the state of our mind. Because we have been abused, typically we feel defeated and worthless, which is exactly the message our abusers want us to receive. It’s probably one of the reasons they abused us in the first place. Although it’s normal to have feelings of worthlessness as a result of being abused, it’s self-defeating to internalize these feelings and make them part of who you are.
If you want to be a whole person—valuable to yourself and to others—you must renew your mind and reject what your abuser has said about you. Don’t internalize. If you already have, however, make a commitment to renew your mind immediately. The way to do this is simple: accept that God loves you and desires your recovery.
The solution is easy, but summoning the courage and the will to transform your mind may be the most difficult thing you ever do. Plus, it’s not a one-time decision. You must to do it every day—sometimes every hour. It’s hard, but the value of making the effort is incalculable.
If you make the commitment and persevere, over time and slowly, you’ll change and become everything God ever intended you to be. If you don’t, you’ll wallow in mediocrity and self-pity for years, perhaps decades. The choice is yours. Renew your mind, or continue to internalize the lies that others have said about you as the truth.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. (I Corinthians 2:12)
So true! It is definitely a process and it is a daily renewing! Sometimes it just takes that reminder of Psalm 139 where He tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made!
Its the perserverence without visible reward that makes this hard. I find I have to choose to follow the example of Jesus when there is no one to encourage me and often no visible benefit I can detect. I have certainly done this for years at a time and still do so when I can see no benefit to it at all. I have slowly learned God is faithful and can be trusted even though I am not always.
On my journey it is perserving when I cannot see and trusting God in my darkness that has helped me find some light. For year and after year I have walked in darkness with the only light or comfort I have known being the light the word of God the bible offers me. No one knew I was lost and alone and I was surrounded by people.
God is new every morning and Jesus is the one who leads us the unknown way into God’s presence so its trusting God to guide us in the darkenss I find the big challenge. My problem – how do I recognise God when he is new each day and how do I know the way when it is unkown? Taking a step in total darkness takes courage – and trusting God to be there is my only hope but that takes faith. I can see more than I could nowadays. I hated the darkness though and don’t want to go back into it again. One step at a time – thats all I can manage.
Reblogged this on My Message and commented:
I really liked this. Very well done.
Thank you so much.