by Lucy | Jul 14, 2015 | biblical counseling, thoughts |
Bad thoughts are negative and untrue thoughts that we speak to our souls. They are nasty, they are loud, and they self-condemn. These words that we say to ourselves may be silent to others, but between our own pierced ears, they slice and dice.
These bad thoughts may sound like:
“I’m not good enough.”
“Ugly. . .that’s me.”
“I’m so stupid.”
“Nobody cares about me.”
“I’m a horrible mom.”
“Loser.”
We women condemn ourselves many times a day, don’t we? You. Me. Everyone. Where did verbal bashing begin? How can we stop these bad thoughts?
Genesis of Verbal Bashing
Verbal-bashing began in the Garden. At first, everything was perfect, as you know. Adam and Eve romped in their God-ordained nudist colony for two without a worry. Then Satan in the form of a serpent slithered on the scene in Genesis 3 and spoke a lie to Eve. She didn’t blink. I would have screamed. Maybe. I don’t know.
His lie: “You shall not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it [a tree that God had said was off-limits] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
She believed her enemy. She died. Not immediately, but eventually. Shame filled her. She and Adam sewed fig leaves to cover up. When I lie to myself, I am believing my enemy. You too. We all do it.
Two decades ago, an oft-told lie of mine: “You’re defective, Lucy.”
Thankfully, I finally listened to God while in a pit of despair and agreed with him that I am precious. I am precious because he says so. He created me “fearfully and wonderfully.” His words! FYI: “Fearfully” means “with great respect” in this context.
What lie do you tell yourself about yourself?
2 Steps to Stop Bad Thoughts
Here’s a way to stop bad thoughts. Two (not so) simple steps! Easy to say, much more difficult to put into practice, right?
1. Ask God to help you recognize the lies that you say to yourself.
2. Replace the lies with God’s truth.
In my example of “You’re defective, Lucy,” I replaced this lie with the biblical truth, “God says you are precious.” Every time I was tempted to speak the “you’re defective” lie to my soul, I then spoke the truth. Over time I self-condemned less often. At least this lie. I’m a work in progress, like you.
How can you begin to replace self-condemning bad thoughts with God’s truth?
by Lucy | Oct 27, 2010 | biblical counseling |
Ghosts on the airwaves? Or, more accurately, on Blog Talk Radio, which hosts my show “Sisterhood of Beautiful Warriors”?
A strange thing happened yesterday during my show. I cannot explain it. While chatting with my interviewee Kristine McGuire, a former Christian witch, medium, and ghost-hunter, one person in the BTR chat room typed that she lost sound. She could hear me or Kristine.
How can I fix her sound? I thought.
Then another woman said she lost sound.
Then another.
What is going on? I typed a plea to Noelle Mena, also in the chat room, who is tech-savvy times a bazillion. She was mysteriously silent.
One woman who had lost sound refreshed her page and all was working fine on her end. YAY! The others refreshed too. But they each lost sound again and again. I told the listeners what was going on and I asked them to pray with me. Someone was playing sdund games. Not funny.
You who know me know I don’t look for devils under every bush. I’m a beautiful warrior in Christ. In his power and his name, I commanded the evil spirits to skedadle. And skedaddle they did.
No more problems with sound. Your inner skeptic may think, “No demons, Lucy, just a tech mess at Blog Talk Radio.” And you may be right.
All I know is 1) a sound problem had NEVER happend in the nine months I’ve had my show and 2) Satan is “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) and hates the truth. He hates me. He hates you.
If you get a chance listen to the podcast of the show (complimentary) and learn how the occult can lure Christians. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN. (Kristine has critical and cautious words on the popular Twilight movies.)
I asked Kristine if I may reprint a small section of her memoir Escaping the Cauldron, which tell how she became a witch and how she got out. It’s an eye-opening read and is available at her website and at Amazon. Here’s the reprint:
After the investigation had concluded, my friend and I were sitting in her car chatting about work and other things , when I sensed the presence of an older female suddenly beside me in the car. The emotion being projected from this being was decidedly annoyed. I “knew” immediately this being was my friend’s mother but I was uncertain if I should say anything to her about it because she had spent the evening avoiding any real conversation about her mother or her death several months earlier.
Suddenly the words ”Just give her the pony” popped into my head out of nowhere. I had no idea what the words meant, but the phrase kept repeating over and over in my mind. I attempted to silently communicate that I really wasn’t willing to cross that particular line with my still grieving friend but the spirit being was incredibly demanding after several minutes had passed and I’d not yet acted upon the information.
Finally, I decided to pause my friend in the middle of her sentence, which I hadn’t really heard anyway, and tell her what I was experiencing. I recounted the information that I had this “ghost”, a rather pushy older woman who I believed to be her mother, sitting next to me with a message for her, and asked if she wanted to hear it. My friend shrugged her shoulders and waited for me to continue.
After I’d relayed the odd message, my friend just stared at me for a moment and then a small smile broke out over her face as she explained what the odd statement meant. Unbeknownst to me, my friend had been struggling with a decision about sending an antique toy metal horse from her mother’s belongings to a young granddaughter. She was worried the toy might be broken in transit and that the child was too young for such a toy, etc.
Laughing she said, “Well alright, I guess I’ll go ahead and send it.”
I tell this story to make a point. A message was given to me by a spirit being ostensibly presenting itself as my friend’s deceased mother. Because of this, the advice given– no matter how surly it was presented– was followed.
My question now is this: how could we know this “ghost” was truly the spirit of my friend’s deceased mother? Was this really my friend’s mother wanting her daughter to get over herself and make a decision and choosing an unconventional way to help or was it something else?
How could we honestly know for certain this spirit being was who it claimed to be? Simple answer– we couldn’t! There was–and is–no way to know. A deceptive spirit could easily have mimicked my friend’s deceased mother.
Giving just enough information to appease any concern or doubt. I imagine you may be asking why would any spirit being go to such lengths to perpetrate such a hoax? The answer is obvious if you consider the Bible’s description of demonic beings and their deceitful intent to turn our focus from the true, living God.
In this way, drawing people from the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ to accept any other spiritual path available and creating separation from God.
To find out more about Kristine’s book Escaping the Cauldron or to buy it, CLICK HERE.
When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a
people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Isaiah 8:19 (NIV)
You Are Blessed!
