Fighting for Freedom

Do you love your life?  Do you wake up each day with joy and expectancy?  Do you look to the future with hope and optimism?  Are you living a life of freedom?  

Or do you just live to survive?  Do you drudge through work and responsibilities with tiny pockets of happiness sprinkled here and there?  

If I’m being honest, I identify more with the latter.  I love my family, find satisfaction in my job, and despite my fair share of struggles, I live an average, but comfortable life.  I have plenty of things for which I am grateful.  But…I’m not always joyful or happy or hopeful or optimistic.  Sometimes I find myself jealous of the success and financial well being of others.  I find myself resentful and irritable, thinking I somehow deserve more than this life that I have been given.

So, why do I wrestle with these thoughts?  Sure, my life has been riddled with struggles, traumas, pain, loss, and heartache.  However, even on my very best days, these thoughts of self-doubt and jealousy can creep in.  That is how Satan works.  He studies us.  He knows our weaknesses. He knows our behaviors.  He likes to hit us in our most sensitive areas.  So, he whispers lies.  “You work as hard as she does, so why don’t you own a nice, big house?”  “Here you go fighting with your husband again.  You are a terrible wife.”  “That dinner was awful.  You can’t do anything right.”  “All you do is work and pay bills.  Your life has no value or purpose.”  “You’ll never be happy.”  “You are a failure.”  And so on and so on…

It starts with a simple lie or seed of distrust towards God that is wrapped up in a little bit of truth.  “You work as hard as she does.”  Well, yeah, I do.  That is true.  “Why don’t you own a nice, big house?”  Yeah, why don’t I?  Why can’t I have that?  "God must not want you to have your own home."  Why wouldn’t God want me to have a nice home?  "God doesn't care about you."  Why would God care about me?  I guess I’m just stuck with what I’ve got.  See how quickly that thought turned toxic?  That is how Satan keeps us from living the life God has promised to those who believe in Him.

John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Satan’s sole purpose is to block you from receiving God’s promises.  God has given his believers life.  Not only life, but life to the full!  What does life to the full look like?  It is living life according to God’s will and purpose.  In exchange for our surrender, God promises us peace, joy, restoration, redemption, love, and freedom!

So, how do we get there?  How do we stop Satan’s hiss?  We must take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).  When a thought comes into our mind, we must test it against God’s word.  Does the thought align with scripture or is it destructive?  A simple way to discern your thoughts is to listen to the pronouns.  In the thought, is the pronoun “I” or “you” being heard?  Typically, we do not speak to ourselves in third person.  We would say “I”.  However, Satan’s whisper is often heard as “you.”  Now, this isn’t foolproof.  If you have listened to the lies of the enemy for a long time, either through your thoughts or through the negative words spoken to you by others, you may have adopted these thoughts as your own and replaced the “you” with “I.”  That is why it is important to also check the thought against scripture to determine if it aligns with the character of God or the character of Satan. 

So, if you have taken your thought captive and determined that it is a lie from the enemy and does not match the character of God, your next action of defense is to combat the lie with God’s truth.  You do this by finding or recalling scripture that debunks the lie.  I find it is helpful to proactively seek out scriptures to have as a handy reference.  Here are a few to get you started. Lastly, thank God for the discernment and for his loving character.

Here’s an example to walk this out for you.

Thought: “You are worthless.  You will never amount to anything.  No one will ever love you.”

1.  Take the thought captive.  Do not entertain the thought further or get into agreement with it. 

2.  Determine if the thought is a lie from Satan or God’s truth.

a.      Notice the pronoun is “you.”  Also, this is contradictory to the character of God.  He does not condemn us.  He gently corrects us, but never condemns.  So, this is clearly a lie of the enemy.

           3.  Combat the lie with God’s truth (scripture). 

Truth: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  – Psalms 139:14

       4. Thank God for revealing His truth and goodness.

It seems simple, right?  Sometimes it is.  Other times, it can be nearly impossible to take captive the thousands of thoughts swirling in my mind.  Some days it feels like Satan is having batting practice, hitting line drives of lies straight into my head, one right after the other.  It can be difficult to fight back, but I know from experience that when I do this, my attitude shifts.  My heart turns from one of bitterness and jealousy to one of gratefulness and praise.  

I’m fighting for my freedom in Christ.  Won’t you do the same?

If you’d like to practice this, here’s a little homework for you:

1.  Write down some thoughts that have been swimming around in your head.

2.   Determine if it is God’s truth or Satan’s lie.

3.   If it is a lie, seek out and write down a scripture to combat that lie. 

4.  Thank God.

5.  Do this every day for a week and journal what your mood and attitude are each day before and after this exercise.  At the end of the week, do you notice a change?

I’d love to hear your feedback and what God is doing in your life.  If you’d like prayer or have questions, send them my way!