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By Billy Holland

Columnist

Do you believe there is such a thing as good and evil, God and Satan? When something good happens, do you thank God because you believe He blessed you? What about when something bad happens? In Jeremiah 29:11, the God of the Bible says, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Looking at this carefully, we notice that our life was mapped out before we were born, and our Creator had every intention to give us an abundant life, filled with wisdom, confidence, peace, and hope. Do you believe this? 

On the other side, according to Revelation 12:10, there is an evil devil, who is our enemy and one of his objectives is to falsely accuse God’s children. He constantly whispers, “You’re not good enough, God is angry with you, you can’t do anything right, nobody cares about you, and you will never amount to anything.” Have you ever had negative persuasions like these? Today if you sense a dark influence of discouragement, please realize these are lies and deceptions coming from the dark side. We just read the passage where God says He loves you and wants a wonderful life for you. God is absolute truth and cannot lie, while the devil is the father of all lies, so who will you believe? Read John 10:10.

The enemy wants us to be so focused on the criticism, rejection, and derogatory comments to trick us into believing we are defeated. It’s a bluff; he is tempting you to take the bait and accept that you are not worthy to live an abundant life. Another lie. The Bible says you are more than a conqueror and a joint heir to all of God’s promises! Emotional pain is such a powerful distraction that we can hardly focus on anything else. However, when we turn that energy into faith, we can walk in the revelation that “greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” Ask Jesus to open your eyes so that you might see His truth more clearly. When we are being attacked, we must fight back with prayer and praise and allow God’s holy word to saturate our hearts.

Every scripture you embrace floods your life with an understanding of who God is and who you are in Him. First Peter 2:9 says that you have been chosen by Almighty God. Is there any higher respect? People may overlook you, ignore you, and criticize you, but the spiritually blind do not have the discernment to see who God says you are. The Creator of all things has called you to be His vessel of honor. He accepts you as His child and not only desires to walk with you now but for all eternity. He looked at you and said, “I choose you; he’s my son. I chose her; she’s my daughter. That’s who I want to be with forever.”

Maybe you’ve been told that something is wrong with you, or that you will never be good enough, but the Bible promises in II Corinthians 5:21, “For the Father made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ.” After accepting the love and mercy of His covenant salvation, when the Father sees you He sees Jesus and this gives Him great joy! God declares your life is worth living! He has made you righteous through His grace, which is the authority that forgives us and allows us to have our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

It’s time to do some spring cleaning within our minds. Sweep out all those pessimistic thoughts and clean out the garbage of discouraging emotions so that God can renew our minds and accomplish His perfect plans within us. You are only held in the bondage of despair and discouragement as long as you accept Satan’s taunting. Let us declare Psalm 139:14, “I will praise you O God; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works, and this my soul knows well.” Choose life, choose truth. You are talented, creative, intelligent, anointed, and filled with the Holy Spirit. You are all these things and more; you just have to believe it. Lies, deceptions, and negative thoughts can only drive us when we give them our keys.

Dr. Billy Holland is a Christian minister, author, and chaplain. Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com.