Today's reading is;  

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

My mind is bombarded with constant chatter that goes something like this: I can't . . . I won't . . . I'm not . . . I never . . . Do you hear it too? I have struggled with these lies of insecurity, fear, condemnation, and discouragement throughout my life and my ministry, and I have seen people I know be overwhelmed to the point that they feel hopeless and helpless to fight.

Jesus calls the devil "a liar and the father of lies", but the devil isn't the only one feeding us chatter. It comes from our own thoughts and beliefs too.

The great news is that God has a voice in this fight, and it's far more powerful than any one else's. We can't silence the negative chatter, but by studying God's Word we can learn to Crash the Chatterbox and overcome the lies that hold us back.

I wrote this study to help you start your fight. I believe if you commit to seven days of focusing your thoughts on what God says about who you are and what you can do, the lies of the Chatterbox will lose their strength. You can learn to make a daily choice to hear God's voice above the rest.

PRAY:

 God, thank you for always speaking to me. Help me to identify the lies that the enemy speaks to me so that I can exchange them for your truths. I trust that you will equip me to crash the Chatterbox within my own mind. In Jesus name.

Am I Looking To God?

Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says, “Look to Me, and be saved . . . .” The greatest difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and His blessings are what make it so difficult. Troubles almost always make us look to God, but His blessings tend to divert our attention elsewhere. The basic lesson of the Sermon on the Mount is to narrow all your interests until your mind, heart, and body are focused on Jesus Christ. “Look to Me . . ..”

Many of us have a mental picture of what a Christian should be, and looking at this image in other Christians’ lives becomes a hindrance to our focusing on God. This is not salvation—it is not simple enough. He says, in effect, “Look to Me and you are saved,” not “You will be saved someday.” We will find what we are looking for if we will concentrate on Him. We get distracted from God and irritable with Him while He continues to say to us, “Look to Me, and be saved . . . .” Our difficulties, our trials, and our worries about tomorrow all vanish when we look to God.

Wake yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter how many things seem to be pressing in on you, be determined to push them aside and look to Him. “Look to Me . . . .” Salvation is yours the moment you look.

Lord, unto You do I look up. How I know that “in me dwelleth no good thing”; and how marvelous is Your grace that I now find in my heart no motive save for Your glory.

Let Us Keep To The Point

My Utmost for His Highest. “. . . my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed . . . .” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest—my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point—He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only—my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.

My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death—it makes no difference!” (see 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide—for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.

Lord, the range of Your power, the touch of Your grace, the breathing of Your Spirit—how I long for these to bring me face to face with You. Forgive my tardiness; it takes me so long to awaken to some things.