“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full Armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6: 10-17

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.” 2 Thessalonians 3:3

The devil will tell you lies to deter you away from the will of God. Unless we are familiar with the truth that God speaks about us we will think that the devils lies are the truth.

In my experience it starts with sin and insecurities and then the devil will build lies around it saying that you are that sin and that you will never change. Trying to hold you in a position of defeat from the beginning. But God says that if we will turn away from our sin we can have freedom. The goal is to not to sin and live a life for God’s glory, but we are human and mistakes will happen but we must earnestly seek forgiveness after the sin and try and not to sin again. The devil knows you just like God does and he knows that there are areas of our lives that make us insecure and he will pick those apart to try to keep you for the Lord and living a life of freedom. The difference between the Lord and the devil is that the Lord loves you and does not want to cause you harm, the devil wants you under his control(misery loves company).

In the last 20 something years especially, the devil has attacked my insecurities of never being enough, my confidence in who I am as a person and my worth. I have struggles with depression and anxiety because I have listened to the devils lies telling me that I don’t belong in my position, that I don’t deserve love, I don’t matter to anyone. But the TRUTH is that God created me and called me worthy, loved, and his child. That is TRUTH that I need to believe.

Here is what God says about you:

• Ephesians 2:10 – You are special
• Jeremiah 29:11 – You are created with Purpose
• Jeremiah 31:3 – You are loved
• Psalm 139:13-14 – You are unique
• 1 Peter 2:9 – You are important
• Psalm 103:12 – You are forgiven

When we call out the lies of the devil we no longer give them power. In order to do that we have to use the sword of truth mentioned in Ephesians 6. When we continually listen to the lies that the devil keeps speaking we are letting the devil kill the light within us. We all have a light within us that should be shared with the world but when we listen to the lies of the enemy we dim our own light because we do not think that we are worthy of sharing our own light God placed in us when we were created. BUT please hear me when I say that YOU ARE WORTHY! God created you for a purpose and you are not meant to live a life of depression and darkness, you are meant to live in the light to grow and blossom and share your beauty within.

I planned this post last week and planned to post it before now but I didn’t feel worthy of writing this post and I had to dig into the word, ask God for forgiveness and pull myself out of the trap of the devil. I say that to say I am not perfect nor will I ever be but I do know that I serve a God that will forgive me and teach me how to work on not giving into sin. The devil will try and stop us from sharing the word of God but don’t give up and give into the devil. Pursue the Father that loves you and wants a relationship with you. You are stronger than you know and you will continue to get stronger if you lean into God’s word and continually go to Him in prayer. Life will not be easy but God will always provide his strength to help us get through. ” I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13.

Lord thank you for another day on this earth, thank for your forgiveness, mercy and grace. I pray that the person that is reading this may be renewed by your strength and that they come to you in the good and bad times. I pray that they know that you are their God and you will always be there for them. Lord I ask that you protect them as they go through battles that you would strengthen their minds and that you would bless them and keep them. Lord I thank you for the person that is reading this and I ask that you remind them that they are loved and that you created them on purpose for a purpose and that you will never leave them of forsake them. You have a plan and you will work all things out for good for those that love you. Lord I pray that if they do not know you that they may have their hearts soften to know you and to love you. In your son’s name, Amen.