Over Easter break my daughter and I flew to Utah to visit one of my longest and dearest friends. Her husband is a pastor, and something he said in his Easter message struck a chord with me, and I knew I needed to write about it as part of this series.
When we run to the Lord we can become who God called us to be but when we run away from Him we become who the enemy tells us we are.” – Steve Swinburne
We will never find ourselves running to the world. Look around at our culture – filled with lust, greed, suicide – it’s obvious running to the answers the enemy gives us isn’t working. We can fill ourselves with as many things as we want but nothing will fill the void, the emptiness in us, that only the Lord can fill.
It’s interesting to me how it all works because we fight so hard to fill those empty places in our hearts. We pour everything into our jobs, our kids, our friends – always fighting but it’s never enough – when the easy answer is standing right next to us, just waiting for us to acknowledge our need for Him. It’s not meant to be a fight, it’s not supposed to be a struggle, we make it hard for ourselves because we are choosing to listen to the lies, but if we were to just acknowledge the truth, our lives would actually be so much simpler.
Truth is right in front of us, we just have to choose to see it.
I know in my own life there have been times when I’ve chosen to not acknowledge the truth because it seemed too simple. Culture teaches us to fight for the things we want, but that’s not necessarily how it has to be. We don’t have to fight for the truth because it is freely given by our Father, but what we will have to do is fight to hold onto the truth because as soon as you take hold of it, the enemy is going to try and rip it away from you.
The enemy knows you are dangerous when you turn and run the the Lord. He knows that when you know the truth of who you are, you become a weapon against him, which is why he’s going to fight his hardest to take it from you. Lucky for us though, he can try his hardest to take it from us, but when we truly know who we are, he has no authority over us.
Through Christ we have been given all authority over the rulers of this earth.” Colossians 2:10 (NIV)
So we have a choice to make – are we going to acknowledge the truth and run to the Lord to discover who we truly are, who we were created to be, or are we going to continue to fight for ourselves, believe the lies and become who the enemy tells us we are?
I don’t know about you but for me, believing the lies and who the enemy told me I was, got to be exhausting. After hours of crying in the closet, locked away because I was so miserable, I knew there had to be more, there had to be a better way. What I’ve discovered about myself, after running to the Lord, is far better than any lie I used to believe. I’m not perfect, none of us are, but the Lord has healed places of my heart I never thought could be repaired. There is still work to be done but filling the places of lack with truth, rather than with lies, is so much more fulfilling and it’s preparing me for my destiny, who God created me to be.
I have this beautiful picture in my mind of God dreaming about each of us before we were born, excited about who we were going to become, how each of us would change the world in our own unique way. He knew there would be struggles along the way because He was sending us into a broken world, but before He placed you in your mother’s womb, He blessed you and put the desire in you to draw near to Him, like a beacon of love that would lead you back to Him, the one who loves you more than anything.
He is waiting.
The truth is there, you just have to choose to acknowledge it.
I beg of you, as someone who has a tiny glimpse of the Father’s love for you, don’t choose into the lies anymore. Turn around and don’t walk, RUN to your Father’s arms. He is waiting. He wants to tell you who you are, how much he loves you, how lovely you are, how He doesn’t see your sins because Christ died for them. He is waiting to embrace you with nothing but love – no more shame, no more guilt, no more emptiness, no more brokenness, just love and truth.
I believe that in the end the truth will conquer.” – John Wycliffe
I love that quote by Steve. Such a true word. And you took that quote and poured the Father’s call into this post. It is so true how we have a choice. Even acknowledging we have a choice demands a response. Great words, Anna!
Thank you!! 🙂
So good. So full of truth.