Names.
We all have names. We have our government name. We have the “names” of wife, husband, mother, father, daughter, son, grandchild, in law…I could sit here all day. The “names” we hold in our careers… Yes, some may call these titles, but let’s be honest, it all means the same thing.
Most of the names above we cherish, they bring us joy and accomplishment…sometimes they don’t and that is where I am going next. Let’s talk about the other names.
The names that threaten to destroy us, the names that the Enemy uses to harm us, beat us down and question who we are.
Unwanted, unworthy, fat, ugly, stupid, unlovable, used, unclean…Unfortunately, I could go on and what is so hard is that it just gets worse. Even now, I have to take a moment to remind myself that those are lies, because even typing this is hard.
Words seep in.
Words that come from people who shouldn’t say them…parents and other family members, kids in school, adults that you should be able to look up to, your first crush and the worst part is we may laugh it off or find a reason to make an excuse…but then it seeps in…and it takes hold and you find yourself looking in the mirror and they are all you see.
I have been there. Some days, I am still there. I am also guilty. I have spoken many times before I even took a moment to think…James 3:8 (esv) tells us, “but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Proverbs 18:21 (esv) says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”.
Words matter. They stick. As an child I heard them and as adult…and I can tell you that there are days that the replay that fills my mind and I have stood in front of the mirror struggling to look at myself.
And yet, none of it is true. Not one name that has left you in tears, broken, destroyed, hurt…they are not true, no matter how hard it is to believe that somedays.
The Truth of who you are is found in Him. You can open His Word and find everything you absolutely need to know about who you are and the more you are grounded in Him, the more you will know how to fight the lies, the deceit, the destruction of the Enemy.
The Enemy wants us broken. Questioning who we are because when we walk in the Truth of God’s Word…when we know that we are His child…chosen, whole, forgiven, clean, with a purpose…when we stand firm in the knowledge that we are a child of God, the Enemy cannot win. The Enemy cannot keep us from His plan and purpose.
The Enemy loses.
When I tell you that I have days that I stand so firm in that Truth and then there are the days it takes one moment and I find myself swirling in the lies and it feel like no matter how hard I try, the Enemy seeps in and it can almost feel like His Truth is hard to open…Because some of those names have been said to me to many times and I have questioned myself and my strength…
But I am here to say, when the hurt and the One who Heals collide and you allow yourself to be so filled with the Truth and Light…and you must fight the Enemy with the Truth of His Word…You can claim victory. And if it happens again, you claim it again and again until one day, you wake up and you realize the only thing you see in the mirror is the Truth of what His Word says about who you are. And the suffering, the pain, the lingering doubts…erased.
You are Enough.
