Satan attacks the mind of believers by planting in it thoughts of guilt and self-condemnation. Whenever you start to condemn yourself by replaying past mistakes and wrong decisions in your head...note that the devil is warming his way into your path. I'd been there very recently; infact it is my experience with this that has inspired this piece. When you begin to hear thoughts like "you are not worthy of God's love," "you can never be blessed" "see how messed-up your past is" "you are not good enough" "God cannot use you"....know that satan is up to his schemes/tricks.
In my own case it became so bad that my prayer life was being affected tremendously. I'd ready myself to pray and the negative thoughts would kick in...."Do you think God will answer your prayers?" "God is mad at you and doesn't want to hear your voice." All kinds of crazy thoughts played in my head and ultimately I found myself really struggling in my walk with God.
I'd been going through this cycle of negativity for several weeks...I was unhappy and honestly didn't know what to do to get out of where I was. I knew I didn't want to remain in this low state of mind. I chose to seek advice from a friend and this turned out to be the best decision I could have made.
The Bible in Romans 8:1 tells us that "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." No one, (not even the devil) can accuse a child of God because when we accept Jesus, we are redeemed and justified in God's eyes. When Jesus became a sin offering for us, God punished Him for our sake...and that punishment was once and for all. When we got born-again, we were set free from the law of sin and death and received grace and life in exchange!
Romans 8:33-34 states, "Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." You see, satan can accuse us all he wants, but his accusation cannot stand because in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and we have been made new. Even when we make mistakes, Jesus makes intercession for us before God...and His grace is able to pick us up when we fall. When we stumble as believers and we stay down, it isn't because God has left us.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God...absolutely nothing. (See Romans 8: 35-39). God loved us when we were yet sinners, and He will always love us. Paul could best understand the depth of God's love. He described himself in one of his epistles as "the worst of all sinners;" he had a terrible past. He once persecuted and killed those who followed Jesus. And yet, God chose Him, called Him, qualified Him and used Him to spread the message of Jesus to the world. If He could use Paul, he can use anyone...even you. No matter how tainted your past is. What qualifies us is our faith in Jesus and what He did. Our job is to walk and live by faith in Him.
The devil will always try to mess with our minds by planting all these thoughts that are contrary to God's word in order to destroy our faith. But we must not allow ourselves to believe in what he says. Instead, we should believe God's word. When the bad thoughts come, speak God's word to counter them. This will continue to sharpen our faith and purge our mind of negative thoughts. The thoughts that dwell in our minds are extremely important as they determine everything else about us. Our thoughts become words and words become actions. So if the devil can put wrong thoughts in our head, he will set us on the path to wrong decision making that could ultimately have a negative effect on our faith and our relationship with God. That's what happened in my case.
After my friend gave me the much needed counsel and urged me to just "go back to God in prayer," I still didn't know what to say to God and the Holy Spirit prompted me to read Romans 8. I needed this word to remind me of who God is and who I am in Him. Its amazing that even in my moment of weakness, God gave me the word I needed to stand up again. See how He loves us?
I shared this word to encourage you not to give into the antics of the devil...no matter what. You are not who he says you are, you are who God SAYS you are.
If God is for you, none can be against you.
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