Get Behind Me — Small Stories of a Big God

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:11 NIV

This is the problem; I spend as much time listening to the whispers of Satan in my ear as I do listening to the songs of God in my heart.

Oh, Satan is such a dastardly deceiver. He comes quietly, well-dressed, and softly insistent. He knows me so well. He knows how to insert himself in my dreams and in the still of the evening. Or he waits for me to be the first murmur I hear as I enter the day.

There it is, the familiar voice, reminding me of faces better forgotten, of words that should have remained unsaid, of actions that still bow my head with regret and shame. “Look at you,” he reminds me, like an old friend. “This is who you are. You will never get rid of these stains. They will always be here. What makes you think you can walk away and leave them behind? What makes you think you are worthy? Best not to venture out there – you will only end up looking the fool.”

And I think to myself, “How did he just undermine me so quickly and so accurately?” Perhaps he is right… Perhaps I am fooling myself. Perhaps I would be better off pulling the sheets over my head and giving up.

I think I often become tangled up in the lies of the liar. How does he do it? How does he get so deep so fast?

This is why I armor myself with God’s words. Sometimes it is just hard-core scriptures. Sometimes it is a contemporary writer of godly thought. Sometimes it is a prayer, a song, or the encouragement of people God scatters along my path. Thank you, Lord, for them and their sweet words. And sometimes it is this – my pen racing across the page – getting these confused lies out of my head with words simplified, clarified, sanitized in black and white.

My sins are already buried, Mr. Satan. God says so. They are as far from me as the east is from the west. Jesus has already poured blood over them and what was crimson is now cleansed and renewed like a blanket of freshly fallen snow on a crisp clear winter day. God promises me that. And God is no liar.

Question: Do you struggle with the lies and discouragement playing in your head? What do you do to fight against it?

Nobody Casting Crowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsts7SMag7M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjkQ6G4kbmk

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