How To Fight Satan’s Lies With God’s Truth

It’s sometimes hard to know when someone is lying. There have been several books developed to help us spot lies by studying body language, eye flickers, facial expressions, voice pitch, among other things. But good liars can even fool polygraph machines.

Psychology tells us there are simply no behavioral cues that can reliably indicate when someone is lying. Researchers have searched high and low for such cues for decades. And the best anyone has come up with is a small number of behavioral cues that are extremely unreliable.

But don’t abandon all hope just yet. There actually are some fairly effective ways to detect liars. It’s not by trying to read body language. The real secret is to listen carefully to what’s being said.

Lying is nothing more than communicating false information. We have to pay attention to the information we’re told, see if it aligns with reason, with evidence, and with what we know or can learn. We have to ask questions and see if the story stands up to scrutiny.

While that’s good advice when suspect a person is lying. It’s also how to deal with the never-ending lies that Satan tells us. He’s an expert liar. Satan never tells the truth, he’s a master at twisting the truth. If we’re not careful Satan can prompt us to lie to ourselves, often without realizing it.

We’ve all called our self stupid for doing things, or even had people tells us lies about ourselves. They say if a lie is repeated long enough we will start to believe it. Especially if you were told things that weren’t truth as an impressionable child. That is part of Satan’s master plan. Tell lies long enough and we will begin to believe it as the truth.

Satan is so cunningly deceptive that we instinctively believe what we whispers in our ears.

He loves to tells us these 4 things constantly,

1.God doesn’t want me to be happy

One of Satan’s worst lies is telling us God isn’t the source of happiness; that He’s a hinderance to it. “All I really want is to be happy, I don’t care what it costs, I only want to be happy.” Isn’t that the desire of literally billions of people?

It’s ironic that according to the Bible, God made us in Him image, He loves us, we are His handiwork and craftsmanship, and He longs to fill our lives with joy. Yet most people reject Him and go off looking for happiness on their own. Psalm 8 tells us who we are in Christ. It’s no mistake that only the truth of Gods word can wash Satan’s lies from our minds.

I find that even often 30 plus years, and being a follower of Christ, I can still hear my Satan’s lies haunting my head from childhood. At what point can all the pain disappear from my head and I completely rely on who God says I am. I’m afraid it’s a never ending battle. But the key is to not give up. To never let Satan win.

2. I’m no good

Satan wants us to think that we are no good. If you often feel this way because of the faults and regrets that haunt you satan has you where he wants you. He loves to damage our self-image by comparing ourselves to others. Admittedly without the grace of God we are warped and ruined by lies that cause us to sin. But, Jesus placed a high value on us. He died and rose again for us. With Christ with in us, there is only one “no good” we need to claim -the promise in Psalm 84:11: “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk upright.”

When Satan is telling us we are no good. Psalm 84 combats Satan’s distortions, and reassures us of our value and uncover fresh blessings from the Heavenly Father.

3. I’m a failure

Another fabrication of Satan is that we are all failures. While we all fail at times, that act doesn’t translate into who we are. In Christ, we are who view failures as a learning experience and as opportunities to find God’s best plan for our lives. Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart my fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

When adversity strikes as it always does refocus your determination and try again. Commit to making each day better than the one before. Then do it again the next day. In the long run, people care far more about who you are that what you do.

Reading Psalm 73 every time Satan is hissing failure in your ears. David struggled with a sense of failure and frustration, but he overcame the lies with God’s truth saying,

“My heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, afterward receive me to glory. When have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” – Psalm 73:21-26.

4. I can’t overcome this temptation

In addition to Satan’s other lies, he is a master at deceiving us with self-destructive habits. He wants us to say we cannot overcome temptations.

To counter that lie Psalm 51 is a great prayer of David’s confession after his moral failure that we can use to implore forgiveness. In Psalm 51:12 David prayed,

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous Spirit.“

We can’t withstand temptation in our own str, but God forgives us, restores our joy, and then upholds us by His generous Spirit. He will uphold you in temptation. Accepting this truth will set you free from Satan’s debilitating lies.

We have to learn to not listen to a single word from Satan because lying is hiss native language. When we learn to spot his lies and to counter each one with the brilliant truth of God’s infallible Word.

Surrender What You Can’t Control

If you want to come through any crisis with your emotional health intact,you need to learn to control what’s controllable in your life and trust God for the rest.

Wow, it took me a lot of years to learn that lesson, and that God is active in our mental,spiritual, and emotional health. Whether we realize it or not. He wants you to make wise choices based on His guidance from the Bible and through prayer.

I think back when everyone was scared to death with the pandemic. But, when you surrender to God what you can’t control, He will work it out for you.

A good biblical example of this is with Abraham in James 2:22, “You see that his faith and his actions were working together,and his faith was made complete by what he did.”

It’s easy to go to extremes with this. For example, you can say it’s all up to God and become too passive to the point where you do nothing or you can act like God doesn’t play a part in your life and assume everything depends on you.

Of course, both extremes are wrong. Maintaining good physical health is about balance, and the same is true with emotional health. Finding a balance that helps us recognize what’s in our control and what’s not is key. When we make wise decisions, based on God’s guidance we learn to,ethos of things that only God can handle. We can do this through reading His Word (The Bible) and talking to Him in prayer.

There’s a movie called “Lord of the Rings” and in it there’s a part where Frodo complains about all the evil and pain in the world. He says to Grandalf, “I wish none of this had happened.”

Grandalf wisely responds to Frodo and says, “So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”

There are a lot of things in our lives that we have no control over. You can’t control all the circumstances of life, but you can choose how you respond to things. And that makes all the difference in the world. And God is always there to help you make the right choice if you choose to surrender the things you aren’t able to control.

My feeling on eating meat

What are your feelings about eating meat?

I have no reason not to eat meat. Although many today have qualms about it. I love animals as much as the next person.

But the Bible teaches that humans can eat meat they so wish. Deuteronomy 12:20 says “When the Lord your God shall enlarge your border, as He had promised you, and you shall say, “I will eat flesh, because your soul longs to ear flesh, you may eat flesh, whatever the soul desires.

And if we read Leviticus 11 it says “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

The Lord put wildlife on this earth so that we may eat it. I myself love meat. I enjoy it meat has many benefits such as preventing anemia, maintaining cardiovascular health, band balancing your cholesterol.

Some say it is not correct to eat meat. But I say how about you choose what you want to eat and let me choose to I want to eat.

I have real issues with people telling me I have to live by their beliefs. People who want to control the narrative. I don’t think another person has the right to shove their belief system down my throat and force me to comply. That’s not what America is. And that seems to be an big issue in America today.

Filled With Hope, Joy And Peace

If you want the peace of God to reign in your life, you have to stop doing several things.

The number one thing I’ve done in the past until God convicted my heart. You have to stop trying to figure out how God will work everything out. I am an over-thinker. I have a tendency to over think everything in my life, every situation, every thing someone says to me I scrutinize. God wants us to trust Him.

You must stop worrying and fretting. “Be anxious for nothing…” -Philippians 4:6.

You must stop telling God what you think is right for you. God knows what’s right for us and has a plan already in place.

However, the most important thing to stop is stop thinking you are a failure. Stop thinking you do not please God.

One of Satan’s most effective traps for robbing believers of peace is to convince them that they must strive in the flesh to please God. He springs this on me all the time. Sometimes when I need a quiet place to pray. I get in my car and drive to a secluded spot. Somewhere I can praise the Lord and enjoy His presence while looking at the nature He created.

Sometimes the thought hits me that I am not doing enough for God. I pray, “God, I’m just not accomplishing much for your kingdom. All I do is pray, share my messages on this blog, go to church. The whole world is going to hell, and I’m not doing anything for you.”

I’m sure we’ve all had such thoughts. We can do everything we can in order to please the Lord, yet we do feel holy. I hardly ever feel holy. Even when I am teaching under an anointing from the Spirit.

People tell me the things I do for the Lord are amazing and tell me I’ll get crowns in heaven. It doesn’t matter where you are with the Lord or what you do for Him. Satan comes in and makes us all feel unworthy, and unfulfilled. It’s easy to lose our peace by giving into these awful feelings.

Paul’s prayer for us in Romans 15:13 says, “Now May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Trust in God’s goodness. Believe in His love and mercy. Do not accuse Him of being angry or upset with you or of not speaking to you. Let His peace rule in your heart and over your whole life.

My Two Favorite Things To Wear

What are your two favorite things to wear?

Thinking about this is a no brainer. I love wearing boots, ankle boots, knee high boots, or mid-calf boots I love them all. It’s what I feel most comfortable wearing.

My other favorite actually a hoodie, or a cardigan. I don’t feel comfortable unless I have something over my shirts. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s something I picked up from my Nagymama (grandma). She always wore a shawl or sweater.

Turning Challenges Into Victories

The greatest tests we face in life will come in the form of discovering the skill of transforming challenges into victories. If God’s hand is in it will be inevitable that we will face great decisive and unexpected challenges which will determine if you will go down the path Godhas laid out.

How you face those challenges will determine if you will have the courage to fight your battle and see God bring about a mighty victory in your life. That courage is the first step in a long journey full of ups, downs, sorrow, joy, and total dependence on God.

If we look at David’s statement of faith in the Bible we see David’s arrival to the battlefield after he had been sent by his father to bring supplies to his brothers and their regiment.

David saw the hulking Goliath taunting the Israelite army into a champions battle to determine who would be subjected to who. David unlike many of the soldiers apparently, demonstrated a willingness to stand up against this giant and stand up for God and His people. At first David was laughed at and scorned by his brothers and passing soldiers but one person overheard David’s words and told Saul about them.

“When the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and sent for him. Then David said to Saul, ‘Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine’” -1 Samuel 17:31-32.

In 1 Samuel 17:34-37 David recounts to Saul his previous victories against a lion and a bear, battles fought in secret in the hills of Judah as David protected his flock of sheep. David speaks of how he killed a lion and pulled one of his sheep from its mouth and how he grabbed it by the beard and killed it, a surprising feat for any teenager. David didn’t attribute those victories t his own military prowess or his great skill of strength but rather David gave all the credit to God.

“The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!” -1 Samuel 17:37.

To David, God wasn’t an ideal to him but a living reality. God wasn’t some far off entity who occasionally checks in on creation to make sure he didn’t leave the light on. David saw God as an integral part of his daily life who was there to help. This is a truth that became even more entrenched in David’s life after he was anointed. David knew what he was called to be and from that revelation he trusted God to preserve him long enough to fulfill that calling (as long as he remained faithful of course).

David was ready to fight this battle, but the irony here is that it wasn’t his battle in the first place. Here the person who should have gone up against Goliath wasn’t a pint-sized teenage shepherd boy but the King of Israel Saul. Of all the people in the Israelite army Saul was the closest match for Goliath in terms of size, we know this because 1 Samuel 10:23 describes Saul as being literally head and shoulders taller than the rest of the people who are estimated to of had an aver height of around 5’3.”

Maybe Goliath’s taunting was to lure our King Saul to fight this battle, to have the largest Philistine (between 6 and 9’6”) and the largest Israelite fight for control under the watchful eye of each other’s gods to see where the true power in the region rested. Even after weeks of taunting and challenges King Saul was content to stay in his tent and hope someone else would fight this battle for him. The shackles of fear had tightened around the heart of the king following his abandonment of God’s anointing and how he was failing in his duty to protect God’s people.

On the other hand you had David who was ready and willing to step up and fight this batt against the people’s enemy. Here we can see how two people react to challenges in their lives.

At one point both David and Saul were anointed by God but only one of them remained faithful and was ready to work with God to bring about a victory. We have one person ready to take up arms and fight while we have another who is trying to pawn off their responsibility but still maintain the credit for the accomplishment.

If you look deeper that’s what Saul tried todo with David. After Saul agrees to send David to fight the Philistine Goliath he tries to arm David with his own royal armor. Maybe Saul was trying to trick the people into thinking he was fighting in the battle. Or trying to put his name on David and take the credit for a victory by proxy. Either way Saul was looking for an easy way out, he didn’t want to fight but he wanted the glory from the victory.

As you can imagine Saul’s armor was too large and cumbersome for David and he elected to go without it. David refused Saul’s armor, he didn’t need Saul’s covering or protection because God was with him.

How often do we trust other people’s armor or position of power in place of God’s in our lives. It’s a temptation because it’s easy to trust more in things we can see or seem to provide tangible protection.

After David refused Saul’s armor he goes outside and finds 5 smooth stones from a nearby brook (1 Samuel 17:41) Why 5? While some say it could have been one stone for Goliath and four more of his brothers, giant who were later killed during David’s reign as king (1 Samuel 21;15-22).

With a shepherd’s staff a sling and some stones David was ready for the battle. At first this may seem foolish but David had already shown that he could kill wild animals with his staff and the use of a sling was actually common in battle in that era. Judges 20:16 tells us that “among all these soldiers there were 700 chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.”

Now the pieces were set and David was ready to face off against Goliath a remnant of the giants that were driven out of Israelite territory by Joshua and into Philistine territory (Joshua 11:21-22). Israel failed to remove the Anakim from the land and now an old battle was about to repeat itself, but the players remained the same the forces of chaos would stand toe in toe with God and his covenant partner.

Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands” – 1 Samuel 17:45-47.

After making that declaration David rushed towards Goliath and hurled a stone with his sling and knocked out Goliath the champion who dared curse and test God and His people.

But the account didn’t end there David went one step further and ensured that the battle was over.

“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it” -1 Samuel 17:51.

How often do we fail to complete our spiritual battles, how often do we get a taste of victory and then go home without completing the battle? It is common today, we stick around just long enough for God to show up and begin to do something and then we think that it’s good enough and go home. We take progression and advantages which God has given to us but fail to see them through into victories and fulfillment of God intentions for our lives. We are content to knock our proverbial giants unconscious but are unwilling to do the “dirty work” and eliminate those giants from our lives.

Do we resemble Saul? The giant is knocked down so we can all go home, amen hallelujah. But, Saul failed in God’s eyes because he didn’t see things through according to God’s plans. Saul took short cuts, spared the lives of enemy kings, acted as a priest to expedite the beginning of the battle and so on.

We need to be more like David who completed the job without compromise. David ensured the victory was complete and left no room for chance, and even went as far as to use Goliath’s own sword to do it.

We cannot continue to settle for half spiritual victories, it’s not good enough for God to only answer a part of our prayer we need to see things through. God is ready to continue to work with and through us but we have to remain persistent and be expectant that there is more to a battle than just the battle, after the battle comes a victory and then comes the reward. Because if we are unable to convert our challenges into victories we’ve only succeeded at inviting more challenges into our lives.

David’s victory over Goliath was complete and led to an even larger victory for the rest of the people. As we see in 1 Samuel 17:51, “And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.” Because of the actions of one anointed and willing servant of God the entire nation enjoyed a victory that day.

It all begins with servant hood

David didn’t do any of this for his own glory but he instead did it to stand up for God and His people. From what can be told by the scriptures David never received the promised gifts of riches, tax/service exempt status for his family or Saul’s daughter in marriage. But what David did receive was recognition from God, as David graduated from the season of anointing and entered into the season of apprenticeship, the second stage of the 4 A’s Anointing, Apprenticeship, Activation and Announcement.

David took this victory as an opportunity to not claim the throne by force but to continue serving Saul and the people. Unlike most people who would have followed up killing Goliath by next challenging Saul to the same battle. David instead continued to serve Saul as both a commander and as the royal mistral (one who could sing and play a musical instrument). David didn’t take his victory as an invitation to fast-forward progression and suddenly go from being anointed to being announced as king. David took his opportunity to serve and was faithful to the point of annoyance in Saul’s eyes, but in the eyes of God and the people he was growing closer and closer into the manifestation of his calling.

1 Samuel 18:5 tells us, “So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sights of Saul’s servants.

Technology I would be better off without

What technology would you be better off without, why?

The first thing that comes to mind is AI. AI will cause people to lose jobs. Also dumb down humans even more, so people don’t have to think for themselves. AI also makes it easier for a person to be scammed out of their money. AI is a sick invention by power hungry fools (my opinion).

The brain chip. The hype is get one of these things stuck in you, and all your worries will be go. “No health problems”, and they say you can have a super IQ. But what they don’t tells you, is that you can be controlled by that chip also, it can change your personality, the beliefs, and I’m sure a few other things as well. Just another sick ploy for people to gain power and play God.

The Father’s Love

Many people find if difficult to think of God as a loving Father. They see Him through eyes clouded with pain from their past experiences with an ungodly father or stepfather.

Thousands of believers do not believe God loves them because their earthly father abandoned, wounded, or grieved them badly. Many have not felt the depths of the heavenly Father’s love.

Many of us know the scriptures and theology behind God’s great love for His children. But, very few have learned to appropriate that love, and therefore can’t enjoy its benefits.

Listen to how God described Himself to Moses. “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” -Exodus 34:6-7.

When we are in the midst of trials, it’s easy to forget what God has said about His own nature. If we would only believe Him in such times, we would have great assurance in our souls. From cover to cover, the Bible speaks to us as God’s voice, revealing to us how tender and loving He is.

God is ready to forgive at all times,

“For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you” – Psalm 86:5.

He is patient with us full of tenderness and mercy.

“Great are your tender mercies, O Lord” -Psalm 119:156.

“The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy” -Psalm 145:8.

When we go to the Lord in prayer and worship, we mush be very careful what kind of image of God you take into His presence. You must be fully convinced of His love for you and believe that He is all that He says He is.

The Hardest Decision

What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?

My hardest decision I ever had to make was whether to stay or go.

As I’ve mentioned before my husband and I have had some rocky roads. When years of pain and suffering and fighting came knocking on my door. I knew I had to make a hard decision.

I thought about whether I could trust him, and whether I could ever forgive him for the things that had happened and if he could ever forgive me as well.

After running away from it all. Leaving without knowing where or how long I would be. I knew it had come the time which path to take.

Which Road

After the fourth day, I knew I had to go back and face the fact that I’ve avoided. After seeing a divorce lawyer. I came home to face my husband.

My husband and I sat down and talked like we haven’t in years. In the end the decision was made to start over. With a cleans slate. That meant forgiving each other, and choosing to move forward with a new plan that was based on respect, trust, and a whole lot more of communion.

So far I think it was a good decision to stay. Marriage is hard, it takes work, and each person giving 100% of themselves to the other. It’s not just about the gushy feelings that we have for each other. It’s choosing to love with your heart and head.

Why America Is Being Cursed

America had strayed so faraway from God that it doesn’t realize what blessings could be had if its people served Him. Doom is soon to strike because America reject him, while professing to worship Him.

The national today does not know what serving and obeying the ways of God are. The way, and the only way, that leads to increasing and perpetual prosperity, peace, and happiness.

America does not know that God’s laws are for our own good, and our protection. America’s false shepherds teach the people that God’s laws are bad for us. Therefore these false teachers had led this nation into unhappiness, discontent, suffering, and we are headed into chaos and doom because of it.

The Great Apostasy

America does not know, because organized religions had told them, that God made a second covenant with our national people Israel, just prior to the entrance into Palestine back in the days of Moses, 40 years, and in addition to, the covenant made with them at Mt Sinai. We are breaking this covenant today, we are dooming our nation into destruction.

Forty years after the making of the Old Covenant, just before Isreal entered Palestine -just before Moses death. God Almighty made a Second Covenant with our forefathers. The terms of which ad being carried out on our people today.

At that time, God said,

“O’ that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always. That it might be well with them and with their children forever” – Deuteronomy 5:29.

Then God commanded Moses to send the people to their tents, while Moses alone stood before God… “But as for you, stand here by me and I will tell you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances,, which you shall teach them, that they may be them in the land which I give them to possess it. You shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” – Deuteronomy 5:31-33.

Throughout the remainder of the Book of Deuteronomy are written the commandments and statutes and ways which would produces national and individual blessings, if followed, and national and individual curses if neglected, ignored, or disobeyed,

The Second Covenant

As the Gentiles (us) came into the church, especially in the second, third, and fourth generations, they brought with them their pagan customs, ways and beliefs. Which mixed paganism with Christianity. Soon the pagans professing Christianity greatly outnumbered those who held fast to the original Truth of Jesus.

The mixing of pagan holidays were substituted for Passover, Christmas,. And it is from this pagan apostasy that today’s so called “Christianity “ of organized religion had degenerated. People born into today perverted world, reared in churches professing to be true New Testament churches, are ignorant of what happened in those early years, suppose, erroneously, that the churches of this day are true churches of Jesus Christ. But prophecy says that long before our day they would turn away their ears from the Truth, and turn to fables. This has happened.

Our land is filled with false teachers, today, just ad Jesus for-told. Many of them, themselves are deceived.

So people today do not know that the nation is suffering, and facing Doom, because it is living in flagrant, violation of a second covenant which God made with America fourth years after the covenant made at Mt Sinai.

This is the first and most important precept America breaks today. No one will claim that our people as a nation love the true God.

America does not realize it or admit it, but they have forgotten the true God is Israel’s God. America is deceived and doesn’t know it. It is embracing a religion that embodies the essential beliefs, philosophies, customs, and ways of the religion of the pagan gods of Moses day.

Many people in America are insolent, stiff-necked, rebellious and are going their own way, and are being led away like sheep to the slaughter. If people would only listen to Deuteronomy 28 carefully to what the Eternal orders of God and be mindful to carry out God’s commands. Then the Eternal God will lift us high above all the nations of the earth, and all the blessing from Deuteronomy will come upon us. But, if we do not listen then all the curses will come upon us until we are destroyed.

Fear Not

Fear. You’ll find it splashed across the pages of the Bible. It is no small subject. From Genesis to Revelation, from Abraham to John on the Isle of Patmos, we hear the command from heaven ringing out over and over again: Fear Not! Fear Not! Fear Not!

That command was given to Abraham. It was given to Moses. And it was even given to Israel. It was given to David, to Daniel, and to the city of Jerusalem. The exhortation and command to not fear was given to the disciples as they were on the Sea of Galilee, to Mary when the angel Gabriel told her she would expect a child, and to the crowds who gathered to hear Jesus.

In Isaiah 41 God said, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand,” In Him we can find strength, our help, and the one who upholds us forever.

If we believe in God and trust His words why then do we fear? I ask myself this question often. The Bible tells us not to doubt, yet we do. I’ve spend most of my life in fear. It’s what my mother controlled me with as a child.

Fear is Satan’s primary tool to keep us bound. It comes in all shapes and sizes. It can look like worry, despair, anxiety. But its greatest damage is done in our life with our ability to make decisions. Every decision we make based on fear will not be in accordance with God’s will.

God told us not to fear and not to be afraid. When God is with us, we cannot be defeated. When God is at our side, we can overcome all things. Fear requires no action and faith requires action. Fear paralyses us.

We have to choose whether we are going to live a life of fear or faith. Especially as our world gets darker with every passing day. We need to have a rock solid foundation that only God can give.

Exploratory activity and risk-taking are two things that sound like faith. When our fear system is active, our faith system is turned off. Fear literally shuts down our brain’s ability to live by faith.

Don’t allow fear to paralyze you. Let your faith mobilize you. It’s time to start standing on this scripture more than ever.

“Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world” – 1 John 4:4

Choose Love, Even In A World Of Hate

Love is not a debate. Sometimes we get so caught up in being right, that we forget what really matters. This is especially evident on social media. It makes me sad when I think of the way many people treat each other on the internet, there’s so many sides, so many opinions, yelling back and forth at each other, each claiming they are right. Angry posts and unkind comments.

I wonder is it really worth it?

The only thing that matters in the end is not whether the other person is wrong or right, but that we showed them love, that we showed them who Jesus is, we have a freedom and a hope that is eternal, that is above anything that could happen in this world. So in the light of eternity. We don’t have to prove ourselves right on every issue. We can’t argue people into believing in God, but His love can draw them in.

Jesus died for the transgender person, Jesus died for that corrupt politician, Jesus died for the person who wrote that post that made you so angry. Jesus died from them because He loves them.

Don’t get me wrong, loving someone doesn’t mean you agree with everything they say, or do, or that you just accept everything as right. Sometimes loving someone means having to tell them when they’re wrong, which can be a difficult thing to do. But it is all about how you do it.

Instead of shaming someone for what they think, respectfully disagree. Instead of letting your anger or fear get the better of you on social media, stick ti what you believe while letting others know that they are loved. God hates sin, yes, but He infinitely loves all people.

Saying, “I may not agree with you, and I don’t believe what your doing is right, but I love you despite that, because God loves me despite all of my failings.”

If we live a life of love, people will notice, and they will wonder why we are different. Especially now, during a time of darkness, we need to let our light shine more than ever.

“Love is patient and is kind, love does not envy. Love doesn’t brag ; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

What do you want to be known for in this life?

Is it money, influence, safety, or freedom? Not even freedom is worth more than love. For even if we were in a prison cell with nothing left, even if the earth shook and the mountains fell, we have a freedom that is greater than all of that, a freedom that lasts. So let us live a life for love.

God gives us the power to love the power to be who Jesus was in this dark world.

This doesn’t mean we won’t mess up, and God doesn’t expect perfection from us. He only asks us to take that one small step, one act of love, and trust that He will grow us.

Love is God’s heart for each of us. Love is Jesus’s blood poured out for our sin. Love is God running after us, reaching out to save us. When we receive His love, we can let it overflow within us, so that we can give it to a world that desperately needs it.

Love is not easy, sometimes it can be painful and difficult, but it is so worth it. Love has the power to change hearts in this broken world.