Month: February 2016

We’ve all heard it or perhaps have even been the one to say it as an awkward, insecure elementary school kid! “Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!” So now as grown ups, who would we chant that to with true grit and conviction? Who would we shout this to with righteous anger and a spirit that says “enough is enough!”?

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Oh no! We’re not going to talk about the devil are we? We should not give him any credit or spend any time focusing on him! After all he’s just a character with horns, a pitchfork and a red suit that is waaaaay too tight on him! Well I for one spent years believing his lies! But one glorious day I had a revelation that one of his greatest schemes is to get the children of God to believe lies about God Himself, others and ourselves! He is the father of lies and there is absolutely NO TRUTH in him!

The power of a lie is that it masquerades as TRUTH! The Word says satan disguises himself as an angel of light! 2Cor 11:14 If you think that everything you believe is TRUTH, then you never question your thoughts and feelings! I can almost promise you, that without a doubt, every one of us is believing at least one lie!  Most of us are buying into a number of lies perhaps about God or what we think about ourselves. If we never recognize a lie as a lie, then we are deceived into thinking that what we believe is truth so we never question it!

But Houston we have a problem! Lies create false beliefs which in turn cause a chain of events with damaging emotions, often wrong behavior and distorted views of who God is and/or who we really are! Who we believe God to be and how we look at ourselves and others is in direct correlation to what we believe! So if we are believing LIES about anything it can and will totally DISTORT our views and thus affect how we react and behave!

This is BIG dear ones!! Really really BIG!! I would venture to say if we counseled with every person in the prison system and prayed and asked God to reveal any lies they believe, I’m pretty sure there would be a long list for EVERY ONE! These lies resulted in behavior based on believing every one of those lies were true! I’m sure many heard these things growing up; You’ll never amount to anything! You can’t do anything right! You’re just like your father and he’s a loser!  You’re so stupid! You’ll never change! 

And for those of us that aren’t in a physical prison, we can become entrapped by lies in an emotional and sometimes spiritual prison that create feelings like fear, rejection, unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, insecurity, hopelessness and even things like self righteousness, self pity, legalism or pride.

Perhaps growing up you heard some of those same things mentioned above. Satan can use other people to speak his lies to us! You’ll never amount to anything! You’re so stupid! Or perhaps no one spoke those things over you but you’ve heard the insidious, persistent voice of satan in a deafening whisper, accusing you, accusing God or others with words of failure, contempt, hopelessness, hatred, unforgiveness, rejection, guilt, shame… and the list of accusations is endless! For satan is the accuser of the brethren and he accuses us day and night before God! Rev:12:10

So what lies are you believing? Obviously you can’t rattle those things off the top of your head since the very nature of a lie is deceiving you into believing it’s TRUTH, therefore never questioning it! One of the lies I believed for many years was that God’s love for me was based on how good I was, how much I prayed, read my Bible, how kind I treated my family and others, how much time I spent in church and on and on!

Growing up I heard from many sources: “God’s watching you and He’s not happy with what you just did!”  So my view of God was that He was a hard taskmaster requiring close to perfect behavior from me which of course I could never accomplish! Unfortunately this type of performance based, conditional love, affected the kind of mother I was to my children! I expected close to perfect grades, behavior and attitudes and when I didn’t get that from my children, I responded harshly, lacking not even one ounce of grace! All because I believed a lie!

Thank the Lord this lie was exposed one day as a friend spoke the TRUTH to me and I was introduced to God’s grace….getting blessed by God when we don’t deserve it or earn it! It’s His gift to us because He is wild about us ya’ll! We are His beautiful mess and He loves us no matter what we’ve done or what we don’t do!! Word!!😉

The great news is that your Loving, Compassionate, Good Good Father (cue song!☺️), desperately wants to reveal every. single. lie. you believe and replace it with His TRUTH! He wants you to be FREE!

You see, when we believe lies that are counter to God’s TRUTH, it keeps us in bondage and puts us in captivity! These lies give us a distorted view of everything and this can lead to destructive behaviors like addictions, self-hatred, rebellion, promiscuity.  It can also affect every relationship we have on earth! I’ve seen marriages and children and friendships damaged because of lies believed! I truly believe that these dear ones who take their own lives are listening to the lies satan is telling them and they truly believe there is no way out and no hope here on earth! Oh how crucial it is to expose this wicked scheme of the enemy who comes to kill, steal and destroy!

So how do we uncover these lies? Well that’s good news too!! All we have to do is sit before the Lord and ask Him to reveal them to us! We then need to dig into His Word to find out the TRUTH to dispel each specific lie! It’s all in the Bible! Amazing!

One day a few years ago, I felt prompted by God to sit quietly before Him with a pen and paper and ask Him to reveal any lies I believed. I questioned the Lord on this as I felt I had already done this many times before for many years! Surely every lie had been exposed by now! But I’ve learned by now to be obedient to His promptings so I sat on my couch and prayed! I was stunned as the Holy Spirit began bringing things to my mind faster than I could write them! I knew this was God! I couldn’t come up with this stuff on my own since the nature of a lie is to be hidden! There were no BIG lies on that list as those have already been exposed and replaced with His TRUTH, but a lie is a lie is a lie and these “smaller” lies have negative consequences as well! I quickly asked God to reveal His Truth to replace each lie and He gave me Scriptures for each one which made this a done deal! Lies exposed! Case closed!

Here are some common lies satan tells us:

• I’m not good enough, pretty enough, thin enough
• I’m not worthy
• I don’t deserve a good husband, job, house, car
• Everyone is better than me
• I can never measure up
• I’m not smart enough
• I’ve messed up so much no one could love me
• I’m not lovable
• I can never be free from this addiction
• God doesn’t love me
• God is punishing me
• God caused my tragedy or sickness
• God is angry with me
• God is disappointed in the person I am
• God loves me only if I do the right things
• God loves me more when I do the right things

Once a lie is exposed and TRUTH is revealed in His Word, the lie has no more power over you, your thoughts and behavior change, those chains are broken and YOU ARE SET FREE! Now that should make you want to go put on your dancin shoes! 👠💃

So what are you waiting for? Go grab a pen and paper and bring with you a heart that is ready and willing to dig down into those deep dark places where satan has deposited his ugly lies! He has held you captive for way to long! Enough is enough! Don’t waste another minute believing a lie! We say to you enemy; Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!

Your Savior, Redeemer, Healer and the One who loves you deeply and passionately is riding in on His white horse! Your Knight in His shining, mighty armor is coming to rescue you! Take Him up on His offer to know the truth! Sweet freedom is yours precious ones and Jesus paid for it already with every last drop of His blood! That’s how very very much He loves you!

OH BEAUTIFUL LOVING FATHER! OH HOW YOU LOVE US AND LONG FOR US TO BE FREE FROM THE LIES THE ENEMY TELLS US THAT CAUSE US TO BELIEVE WRONG THINGS ABOUT WHO YOU REALLY ARE, YOUR CHARACTER AND EVEN CAUSE US TO DOUBT YOUR LOVE FOR US! LIES ARE WREAKING HAVOC IN THE LIVES OF YOUR CHILDREN WHO ARE IN BONDAGE TO THEM!  BUT THANK YOU FATHER FOR SENDING YOUR SON JESUS TO DESTROY EVERY LIE OF THE ENEMY! THANK YOU THAT ALL WE NEED IS A DESIRE TO KNOW TRUTH AND YOU WILL REVEAL IT TO US! HELP US LORD TO REALLY SEE EVERY LIE AND REPLACE IT WITH YOUR TRUTH! OH HOW GRATEFUL WE ARE THAT JESUS GAVE HIS LIFE FOR US SO WE COULD BE FREE! HELP US TO WALK IN THAT FREEDOM! IN JESUS MIGHTY NAME! AMEN

Love Always,

Tarabella

John 3:30

 

 

“She felt like doing her part to change the world, so she started by giving thanks for all the blessings in her life, rather than bemoaning all that was missing from it. Then she complimented her reflection in the mirror, instead of criticizing it as she usually did. Next she walked into her neighborhood and offered her smile to everyone she passed, whether or not they offered their’s to her. Each day she did these things, and soon they became habits. Each day she lived with more gratitude, more acceptance, more kindness, and sure enough, the world around her began to change, because she had decided so, she was single-handedly doing her part to change it!” 

I don’t know the original author of this story, but a precious friend posted this on her Facebook page this morning! It really struck my heart, not just because it’s encouraging and spurs me on to ✔️ my own attitudes about life, but this dear friend has experienced the hardship of taking care of a husband who was seriously ill and in and out of the hospital for many years and then losing him and having to raise an 8th grade son alone!

Through it all, even though it was devastating and heart wrenching, she was always the one encouraging everyone else and never failed to make people around her laugh, and I mean belly laugh! I know she had many times where she just wanted to give up and just crawl in a hole and stay there, but she did the things this story talked about and slowly but ever so surely, she changed her attitude about life and that changed her world!!

So what’s my excuse for having a bad attitude? What’s our excuse for negative or critical thinking which leads to negative and critical words, which can lead to some pretty yucky behavior and consequences? We are talking some pretty serious badittudes!

The definition of attitude is: “A manner of thinking, feeling, or behaving that reflects a state of mind or disposition: a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a persons behavior. A predisposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively”. What’s your tendency? Do you naturally respond positively or negatively to the events that life brings you?

So where do our attitutudes come from? Sometimes we grow up and take on certain attitudes of our parents, both good and bad, sometimes we experience disappointments, rejection, loss or hurts that cause us to develop certain negative attitudes. If we are not careful, these negative and critical thoughts will go from being thoughts in our mind to being rooted in our heart! The Word of God tells us:

What we allow to get into our heart literally shapes and forms the person we are or become! I don’t know about you, but that scares the bejeebers out of me! It makes me want to stop dead in my tracks and really evaluate those thoughts/attitudes that have infiltrated my heart!

Now we all can have days where our attitudes are not what they should be! Our morning starts with the alarm not going off, the kids are grumpy, someone cuts you off in traffic, we spill our coffee on our new blouse, you get behind someone at the checkout buying 50 $5.00 gift certificates at Walmart Mart (yes this REALLY happened to me), you busted it to fix dinner and no one is home to eat it and on and on with the stuff life brings! It’s ok to cop a bit of an attitude on days like that but if we are not careful, our thoughts can turn into this:

“I’m so sick of these kids always being grumpy in the mornings! Can’t believe they are so ungrateful and don’t appreciate anything I do for them!”

“I’m so sick of having to get up and go to work! This job doesn’t pay enough and they don’t even appreciate all my hard work!”

“I can’t believe how many people are horrible drivers! No one watches out for anyone else but themselves!”

“I can’t believe how selfish people are! Don’t they know there are people behind them in line who need to hurry up and get home!  There are so few considerate people in this world”

You see how a few unfortunate circumstances can turn into broad based bad attitudes that will cause you to generalize very specific and situational thoughts and turn them into negative attitudes that go deep into your heart and shape the kind of person you are! WE ARE WHAT WE THINK! And like Shakira says “Hips don’t lie”, our LIPS DONT LIE!! We can’t hide what’s really in our ❤️!

Soooooooo it’s time to STOP and really begin asking the Lord if there are any attitudes in our hearts that are negatively affecting us, our behavior and or the people around us! I know for me I have struggled with a “BADITTUDE” about the city I have moved to this past year! I’ve moaned and complained about the traffic, bad drivers, unfriendly people, the BIG bugs and high humidity! Thankfully the Holy Spirit nailed me on that a few of months ago and showed me that my critical attitude was affecting those I love the most! I have made a conscious effort to guard my heart and my tongue! I’m still not there 100%, but I’ve come a long way baby!

There are so many Scriptures that address our attitude in our thoughts and words! Philippians 4:8 talks about how me must think about things that are noble, true, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy! Well that pretty much makes it clear that all that other stinkin thinkin has no place in the life of a lover of God!

The most powerful Scripture about our words is found in Proverbs 18:21:

“THE TONGUE CAN BRING DEATH OR LIFE; THOSE WHO LOVE TO TALK WILL REAP THE CONSEQUENCES.”

That is sobering and we carry a HUGE responsibility to keep our attitudes and our words positive, encouraging and full of hope, faith and love! We can speak life to those around us or let our negative attitudes and words bring death and destruction!

I think where we get tripped up is we speak BEFORE we think! I remember when one of my kids was in High School and they knew just what to say to push my buttons which caused me to lash out with words that were unkind, unloving and very ungodly! I got so weary of this constant battle of attitudes and words! One day I pleaded with the Lord to help me put a guard on my mouth! Psalm 141:3 says: “Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips!” With God’s help and my determination to be a godly example to my child, my lashing out stopped and soon after so did the button pushing!

But even more important than just controlling what we say, it is crucial to ask the Lord to search our hearts, for it is there that destructive attitudes live, grow, fester and defile us to the very core of who we are! Pray these Scriptures to insure that our hearts stay pure and positive!

“SEARCH ME, OH GOD, AND KNOW MY HEART; TRY ME, AND KNOW MY THOUGHTS.” Psalm 139:23”

“GOD, CREATE A PURE HEART IN ME, AND RENEW A RIGHT ATTITUDE WITHIN ME!” Psalm 51:10 ISV

We all know people with positive attitudes! Jesus was our GREATEST example! Even as He faced relentless persecution, excruciating suffering and finally a brutal death, His attitude remained loving, kind and compassionate. We have His Spirit within us that can empower us to keep our thoughts, words and deeds worthy of our calling as sons and daughters of God!

So on this first day of ❤️ month, I’m committing to doing an ATTITUDE ✔️! Will you join me? Ask God to reveal any badittudes you may have, especially those that are really causing damage to those around you or things that are ruining your witness as believers! I know having a negative or critical attitude can also affect our health and it just plain drags everyone down!

The fruits of a pure heart and positive thoughts and words are a closer relationship with the Lord, our families and friends,  better health, fruitfulness in our jobs, ministries, peace of heart and mind, joy, contentment and the list goes on and on!

We can’t always change the circumstances around us, we can’t always change what others think or how they behave but we can change our words, thoughts and attitudes and subsequently what we let get into our hearts! Let’s choose LIFE! Let’s change our attitude and just maybe we can change our world! 🌎☀️

FATHER GOD, SOME OF OUR ATTITUDES ARE NOT PLEASING TO YOU! FORGIVE US FOR LETTING OUR FLESH RESPOND TO THE FRUSTRATIONS AND TRIALS OF OUR LIVES! SEARCH OUR HEARTS O GOD AND REVEAL ANY AREA THAT IS NOT LINING UP WITH YOUR WORD AND YOUR CHARACTER! WE LONG TO BE A LIGHT AND A WITNESS FOR YOU AND CAN NOT DO THAT EFFECTIVELY IF WE HAVE THE ATTITUDES OF THE WORLD! WE COMMIT TO BEING INTENTIONAL ABOUT THE THOUGHTS WE HAVE AND THE WORDS WE SPEAK! MAY THE WORLD KNOW WE ARE YOURS BY OUR ATTITUDES! THANK YOU THAT WE DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS IN OUR OWN STRENGTH! IT’S NOT BY MIGHT, NOT BY POWER, BUT BY YOUR SPIRIT WE CAN SUCCEED! FOR YOUR GLORY LORD THAT WE MAY KNOW YOU AND MAKE YOU KNOWN! IN JESUS MIGHTY NAME! AMEN

Love Always,

Tarabella

John 3:30