Today is a topic that I flat out DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT!

I believe that because I feel so strongly about it, it is exactly the toxin God wants to rid from my life!

So, here we go…

Lie #4-My body belongs to me and no one else. Whatever I chose to do with it is up to me!

Truth #4-My body belongs to God and He cares VERY much what I do with it!

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of The Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God brought you with a high price.”                                                                            I Corinthians 6:10-20

Now, the obvious abuses to my body are much easier for me to excuse as the “of course nots!’

Of course I know that I am not to abuse alcohol!

Of course I know that I am not to abuse drugs!

Of course I know that I am not to abuse sex!

The “of course nots!” 

But what about the “I think so’s?”

I think God is alright with my overeating? 

I think God is alright with my under-eating?

I think God is alright with my lack of exercise?

I think God is alright with my obsession to overexercise?

I think God is alright with…you fill in the blank. 

 The truth is, it is much easier to fill in the “I think so,” blanks, than the, “of course not,” blanks. Why? Because we can clearly see lines we are not supposed to cross, but the line becomes blurry when we buy into the LIE that our body belongs to us and what we do with it is our choice alone.

The TRUTH is that our bodies belong to God! The Holy Spirit of God dwells in them and He cares very much what we do with them.

This TRUTH can actually become a comfort to us as we realize that we can make healthy, good choices when we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

I also believe that it is good and right and true to realize that our bodies are good and acceptable to God just the way they are! God paid the high price of His one and only Son, and bought our bodies. We are the body that His Holy Spirit dwells in, and we are good and acceptable to Him.

As I face SUMMER, and the beach trips, swimming pool events, weddings, showers and graduations, I feel a sense of peace knowing that my body is good and pleasing to God.

I do not have to hold onto the LIE that torments me that, my body is mine, and not good enough!

As I work this Summer on detoxing that lie and trading it for God’s TRUTH, I look forward to greater freedom in enjoying all the events that Summer has to offer!

I pray the same for you my friends!

Jump into that pool, splash in those beautiful waves and kick up your heels at those social events with confidence, knowing your body is the temple of The Holy Spirit!

TRUTH BOMB

KICK UP YOUR HEELS…FREEDOM COMES IN KNOWING OUR BODIES BELONG TO GOD!

ENJOY THE FREEDOM!

Speak Truth Love

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Seriously, I would love to meet the fool that coined this phrase! I would tell them directly to their face that there were never more untrue words spoken!

WORDS HAVE SUCH POWER OVER US!

They can be the primary weapon satan uses to “steel, kill and destroy us!” He seems to prowl around and discover the very words that will do the most damage to our souls.

The words spoken to me in elementary school in the 5th grade when I transferred from one school to another near our new home, still haunt me to today. Actually, I’m afraid they do more than just haunt me. I fear that I believed them then, and I believe them still. They are the words that are fresh in my mind each and every time I try on a new bathing suit! They are the words that I hear in my head as I pull on my jeans! They are the words that make me feel inadequate as I search for the “perfect” dress for the family wedding or graduation. They are the words that surface as I look in the mirror each morning and make the dreaded decision on what to wear.

“You are a PIG!”There cruel words still ring in my ears! They would even hold up their noses and snort!

I was only in the fifth grade and I was actually thin. I looked back at pictures of myself to prove to myself that I was thin! My legs were straight up and down, even as I wore knee socks, which was the fashion. I wore the same dresses as my younger sisters and they looked exactly the same on me as they did on them! I was taller, and it just so happened that my sister who was only 11 months younger than me was tiny and petite and looked like she could be 3 years younger. Apparently, this gave some of my schoolmates the ammo to take aim and fir those devastating words at me; “You are a PIG!”

I had a family that loved me and told me I was beautiful, and a loving grandmother who told me they were just jealous. However, deep down in my heart I felt FAT! After all, I was the biggest one in my family.

The reality of this age-old adage of sticks and stones; translates more accurately in Craig Groeschel’s book as: 

“Sticks and stones can bruise your body for a few days, but words can scar your soul for life!“

So true Friends. My mind knows that children can be thoughtless, jealous, rude and yes, sometimes just mean! But, my soul and my heart, believed the lie!

In order to know that we are indeed, fearfully and wonderfully made, we must detox the lie with the TRUTH of God’s Word!

Lie # 3– I am unattractive, and my body is lacking!

Truth #3– I am attractive and beautiful from the inside out!

“You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God!”

I Peter 3:4

“People judge by outward appearance, but The Lord looks at the heart.“

  I Samuel 16:7

Words truly can scar our souls. However, if we allow The Truth of God’s Word to penetrate our spirit, it heals our wound.

TRUTH BOMB

YOU ARE ATTRACTIVE AND BEAUTIFUL FROM THE INSIDE OUT!

Believe the Truth my friend! Speak it over yourself and allow God to heal the scars and detox the lies.

You are beautiful and truly perfect the way you are!

Speak Truth Love

“We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave!“

Besides these being the lyrics to a popular song, we really are having a HEAT WAVE!

We have experienced a very cold and wet winter and spring. This heat wave has hit us in full force and has rocked my world back into reality!  What reality you say? The reality that “HEAT HAPPENS”, and I do not like it!

As wonderful as the winter and spring was, the HEAT is back!

I fell like the contrast between the cool weather of spring and the hot weather of winter, paints a perfect picture of my battle to replace my lies, with God’s TRUTH!

I started the week off calm, cool and collected as I spoke God’s words of truth over my life.

“I am Loved!”  “I am Chosen!”  “Even before God made the world, He thought of me!”

Ephesians 1:4

But then the lies hit with full force, just like the heat wave, and my calm assuredness, was rocked by doubt and disbelief again!

So, I had to hit my “Re-Set” button and be set right again!

I had to return to Philippians 4:8, our anchor verse, and focus on the words that speak God’s purpose over me…

True, Noble, Right, Pure, Lovely, Admirable, Excellent, and Praiseworthy

If the words speaking over my life did not reflect these traits then I was to get rid of them!

I spent a lot of time “detoxing” the ugly words out of my heart and mind this week friends.

I wish it were not true. I wish I could write and tell you that I walked down the beautiful trails near my home and whispered true and encouraging words to myself. However, the heat on the outside kept me inside, and the lie of the enemy inward kept me speaking Truth outward!

I pressed the RE-SET button several times this week! Did you?  

If you did, then you are DETOXING! You are getting rid of the old, pouring in the new, and keeping on keeping on!  That is all any of us can do.

The world and the director of it, satan, continue to flood us with lies. It causes us to doubt who we are in Christ, who He has created and called us to be, and what purpose He has for us. The only way to combat the LIE is to replace it with The TRUTH!

So, go ahead, press that “RE-SET” button if you need to, and get back in it!

The heat waves will come, but they will not burn us. The cool, refreshing calm of God’s words of Truth will blow into our lives and refresh our spirits like the return of cooler temperatures.

Our weather forecast is ‘Cooler days ahead!’ My physical body is ready for the change.

My spiritual body needs the change as well, so here we go!

Lie Number Two: I am abandoned!

TRUTH Number Two: The Lord will never leave me or abandon me!

“The Lord has promised the He will never leave us or desert us.”  Hebrews 13:5

“So do not fear, for I am with you: do not be dismayed, for I am your God.”  Isaiah 41:10

If the heat waves of discouragement and self-doubt have blown over and scorched your spirit, breath in the refreshing truth directly from God to YOU!

God is with you no matter what you are going through! He will never leave you or forsake you, HE IS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

TRUTH BOMB

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU!

Keep on detoxing my friend. It is not easy but it is the only way to live “FREE FROM” the lies that hold us captive and drag us down!

Press “RE-SET” if you need to, and step into week 2 free from the lie of abandonment!

Refreshing days are ahead!

Speak Truth Love

Are you ready to be Free?  Are you ready to begin this SPIRITUAL DETOX with me?

Did you wake up thinking, ‘Today is the Day! Let’s Go!’ or, ‘Is today the day? Oh boy, here we go!’

No matter what frame of mind you are beginning this in, you are beginning it!

One day at a time my friend, putting one foot in front of the other. You are not alone! WE can do this together! As we get started, I want you to know something very important. You have a re-set button. That’s right, any day or time that you need to press, re-start, you can!

My favorite definition of re-start, is “to become set again.”

My commitment to this Summer Spiritual Detox is to be RESETTABLE! To know that even when I have a hard day, blow it, feel discouraged, and that I can’t “keep on keeping on,” I can reset my commitment to God and this detox and keep moving forward!

I have HOPE friends! Do you?

I heard a quote from one of my favorite pastors that said, “Commitment is the key to HOPE!”

As we commit to this Spiritual Detox today and each and every day we do it, we have HOPE that we will be cleaned from the inside out and “FREE FROM,” anything and everything that pollutes!

As we begin, I want to reiterate the reason for and the need of a Spiritual Detox.

God asks us to be ‘FREE FROM’ anything that pollutes, corrupts, stains, soils, or distracts from what is good and right.

Philippians 4:8 is our verse that guides and directs us through our Spiritual Detox.

“Finally Sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – is anything excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.“

Distraction is such a BIG problem in our world today. With immediate gratification and information at your fingertips, literally a swipe away, it becomes more and more difficult to concentrate on anything that is not flashing, changing or presenting a massive amount of color and pixels per second! Yet, concentration and focus is exactly what I believe God is calling us to. We must reflect on God’s Truth to know what lie we are holding onto that is polluting our mind, body and soul! And, may I be so bold as to even suggest, beyond that, God is asking us to take the time to “BE STILL,” and listen to His Spirit reveal the lie, so that we can detox from it by replacing it with His TRUTH!

I have come across an amazing book on the subject of detoxing spiritually. It is a book written by Craig Groeschel called, ‘Soul Detox.’ In it he takes this commitment of “living clean in a contaminated world,” seriously and does an incredible job of guiding us through the process. I am going to be reading it through this Summer Detox, and I highly recommend it to you as well.  I will be quoting from it as we go and I am looking forward to the experience. However, my focus on the Blog will be the issue I believe we as women struggle with the most. I believe that it haunts us to our very core and keeps us from approaching this or any other challenge in our lives with full force!

That is the problem of LIES! The lies that have been spoken to us, about us, and over us from others. Also, the lies we speak over ourselves. Yes, you heard me right! The lies that we believe about ourselves that we believe so wholeheartedly that when we hear the TRUTH from God that destroys the lie, we say things like, “I know that is true, but not of me because I am…”, or “I know God’s Word is Truth, but because I am this…, it does not apply to me.”

Or maybe the most frightening aspect of all; we say nothing at all.

When we hear the Truth and believe in our minds that it is the Truth, we are silent. Because we have already dismissed it the moment we heard it. We have allowed the Lie to become bigger than the Truth! The Truth never even had a chance to replace the lie. We have made the Lie our truth.

So, our Summer Spiritual Detox on the Blog is replacing that Lie with God’s Truth.

We will look at a new Spiritual Truth each week and will work on replacing or detoxing, the lies we hold onto that are contrary to God’s Truth about us.

We will work each week on one Truth and on detoxing one lie by speaking God’s Word of Truth over that lie daily.

Here we Go!

Lie Number One: I am unwanted!

Get rid of that toxic lie. God loves you, chose you, and sent His Son to die for you!

TRUTH Number One: I am Loved By God!

Replace the lie with this Truth:

“Even before He made the world, God loved us and choose us.”  Ephesians 1:4

“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ.”  Ephesians 2:4-5

TRUTH BOMB

I AM WANTED AND LOVED BY GOD. HE PROVED IT ON THE CROSS!

Get rid of the lie that you are not wanted. God loves you so much that He chose you before the foundation of the earth. Then He proved it by dying on the cross for you. That is how wanted you are!

Repeat these verses over and over again as you let go of the lie, and breath in The Truth!

Day one friend! You did it! Congratulations!

Remember, Hope comes with commitment. Commit to speak these words of Truth over yourself all week. Detox the lie, and replace it with The Truth!

Let’s Go!

Speak Truth Love