NEW Year, Old Lies.
A NEW year has begun. People everywhere will be scratching out the former year, momentarily forgetting that with the turning of the calendar, along came a new month, and with it, new digits. Like every year before, with time and repetition, 2020 will become rote. I know I am not alone in loving a fresh start. A clean slate. A new beginning. I just love a blank canvas brimming with opportunity, potential, and limitless possibility. But, what if, as you step into the new, full of expectation and anticipation, you carry with you something old? Not your grandmother’s pearls or your grandfather’s legacy, but an old lie that has held you back for as long as you can remember, and threatens to continue hindering your movement forward, as you place one foot into a brand new decade. In this case, the momentum of the new is thwarted by the old, not enriched by it. To fully take ahold of the hope offered at the starting line, we must call attention to, identify, and extract that old lie, then systematically replace it with a new truth found in God’s word. If we fail to do so, we are unwittingly placing limitations on the growth God has planned for us. He is always calling us forward into the new, not wanting to leave us tethered in the past, bound by the old. The Lord recently gave me a new revelation for a repeating thought pattern that turns out, was rooted in, you guessed it, an old lie. To explain, I need to first tell you that I am a self-professed bible-study nerd. I love studying, reading, learning, listening to sermon podcasts, praying, and spending time with Jesus, leaning into what He would say to me through His Word and by His Spirit. As a result, whenever I get into a group-setting, like the women’s bible study I attend, I get very excited, and words just come spilling out! I seem to have something to say about every variety of topics we may cover at a given time. Like a kindergartner, whose hand is waving wildly in the air, while putting the other one over her mouth, spit and indeterminable sounds bursting out through her squeezing fingers after the teacher has asked a question, I can barely contain myself! Inevitably though, on my drive home, the same ‘ol shame-filled barrage of questions come pouring into my mind: “You just won’t shut-up, will you?! When are you going to put a lid on it and give someone else a chance to say something?! Do you really think that you have so many meaningful things to share?! Who do you think you are?! You aren’t some theologian or bible teacher that can speak with authority. You need to show some self-restraint and be quiet for once. You have nothing important to say. YOU TALK TOO MUCH!!!!!” I had never put two and two together, until one day, sweet Jesus kindly reminded me that my entire childhood I was actually told that I “talk too much”. I was an only child for 9 years, so my poor parents had to bare the brunt of my deep need to communicate….constantly. In school, I made good grades, had appropriate behavior, and got along well with my teachers and classmates, but without fail, on my report card every nine weeks, I got the feared “check minus” in the categories of “Controls Talking” and “Works While Not Disturbing Others”. It was clearly an on-going problem! Loving, well-intentioned, (and, I get it, exhausted) family members, weren’t lying when they called me “motor mouth” or asked me “to please give their ears a rest”. I obviously did talk excessively. But, unfortunately, as is common, the enemy swooped in and took it a step further by whispering, “What they really mean when they say those things to you is that you don’t have anything worthwhile to say or anything meaningful for them to listen to. What you need to do, is just stop talking.” See that tactic there? That is what the Father of Lies does. He takes a perceived weak spot where you carry shame and already feel vulnerable, and twists it enough, that since there may be partial truth, you internalize it and own it and let it affect you deep down. A very wise, dear friend once said that we should pay careful attention to where the enemy repeatedly attacks us because that is very likely an area where God wants to use us the most. So, today, with this post, I am turning the tables on that old lie and the one who authored it. On my own, I may not have anything meaningful to say, but because of the work of the Cross and the indwelling Holy Spirit within me, I have love, and light, and life, and wisdom to share by the divine grace of Jesus Christ. If any of my words, few or many, bring hope or perspective, or points even one person to Jesus, then I would consider them worthwhile. To propel myself forward toward the Lord’s plans for my life, the NEW truth I am proclaiming in place of that old lie, is found in Acts chapter 4:29-29: “They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”
What NEW truth do you need to replace for an old lie so that you can accomplish all that God has planned for your life and those around you in this NEW year?
Intimately,
Jenni
