6 Lies the Devil Uses to Condemn You - J. LEE GRADY CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Don't let the devil cloud your mind with accusatory lies. (iStock photo )

6 Lies the Devil Uses to Condemn You

9/28/2016 J. LEE GRADY  CHARISMA MAGAZINE

I have a friend who is a gifted worship leader, a loving husband and an affectionate father. He's funny, smart, passionate about his faith and wholeheartedly committed to his church. People who know him say he's a model Christian.

But underneath this joyful exterior is a lot of pain. He struggles with depression, and then he condemns himself because Christians are supposed be happy. When emotional heaviness drags him to a low point, he knows how to put on his convincing "church face." Nobody knows the dark thoughts that torment him.

My friend is not unique in this struggle. Countless Christians I know engage in a daily battle with the enemy of their souls. And Satan is relentless in his attacks. He is described in Scripture as "the father of lies" (John 8:44), and the "accuser of the brethren" (Rev. 12:10). He wags his bony finger of condemnation and tries to deny us access to the Lord's love and mercy.

You will never find victory in the Christian life if you don't expose, confront and renounce Satan's groundless accusations. If the devil has been replaying his lies in your head, you must hit the "EJECT" button now! The spirit of condemnation always makes these outrageous statements listed below:

1. Jesus can't use you if you have a weakness. The devil is always ready to remind you that you are fat, unattractive, prone to depression or addiction, sexually broken, traumatized or fearful. But guess what? The people God used in the Bible were far from perfect. Every Christian has flaws. God made us weak so we would find our strength in Him. If you were perfect, you wouldn't need a Savior.

2. You should give up if you constantly struggle with sin. Many Christian men I know feel spiritually disqualified because they haven't totally overcome their addiction to porn. They feel bad for being tempted, and then if they stumble, they feel defeated for weeks. This can lead to discouragement and despair—and then they lose all hope of overcoming the habit. The secret to victory is not sweating and straining to resist; instead we must meditate on the love of God and allow His Spirit to rise up inside of us to override sin's power. If you are struggling, do not give up! The Spirit will help you!

3. God's promises are for other people, not you. Do you feel God's goodness always bypasses you? You may have an orphan spirit. Many Christians don't believe the heavenly Father loves and accepts them. They may have been rejected by their parents, or lacked parental affirmation. Life's pain can block our ability to see God as He is. But if you have given your life to Christ, the Father has adopted you, He delights in you, and He has given you full inheritance rights. His promises are yours to claim!

4. God is always mad at you. Many believers base their relationship with God on performance. If they read their Bibles and pray every day, they feel they are on God's "good side"; if they miss their morning devotions they assume He is upset. The devil loves this legalistic mindset because it prevents us from experiencing God's grace. You must come to understand that the Father does not love you for what you do; He loves you because you are His child. He is slow to anger and full of lovingkindness. When you allow this truth to soak your soul, you will enjoy true intimacy with Jesus.

5. Your past mistakes disqualified you. I met a Christian man recently who loves God with all His heart, yet he sits in the back of his church every week feeling inferior because he committed adultery 35 years ago. His wife forgave him, and he repented for his sin, but he assumes he wears a scarlet letter around his neck and that he has been banished to a spiritual wasteland. That's a lie! If you have repented for your sin, God has forgiven and forgotten it! Nothing can separate you from God's love—not abortion, divorce, sexual sin or any other unspeakable mistake you regret.

6. You have committed the unpardonable sin. I've counseled several troubled Christians who read Matthew 12:31-32 and decided that they had blasphemed the Holy Spirit and therefore could not be saved. This is a ridiculous notion, because a person who committed the unpardonable sin mentioned in this passage wouldn't care if they had blasphemed. If you are worried that you did this, then you haven't! Your heart is turned toward God and you want to please Him. That alone is evidence of His grace working in you.

Romans 8:1 is one of the most liberating verses in the Bible. It declares: "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." This promise is for you! Jesus took your punishment and removed all guilt from your record. And His blood is more powerful than any lie Satan can throw at you.

You are now qualified. Your past is irrelevant. You don't have to work to win God's love. When the Father looks at you, He doesn't see your past sins or present struggles; He sees a robe of righteousness. Renounce the devil's lies and believe God's promise. He loves you with an indescribable, unfathomable, unconditional love.

J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He is the author of several books including 10 Lies the Church Tells Women, 10 Lies Men Believe, Fearless Daughters of the Bible and The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale. You can learn more about his ministry, The Mordecai Project, atthemordecaiproject.org.

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Things to Remember When You've Failed - ROSILIND JUKIC CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Have you failed or done something that you regret? Remember this. (iStockPhoto | Chepko)

4 Things to Remember When You've Failed

 12/3/2015 ROSILIND JUKIC  charisma magazine

I'm sitting here typing with a heavy heart.

I've been carrying it around for a day and a half now ... it's kind of a heavy load to bear.

You see, yesterday I messed up.

I'm in a tough place momentarily because I need an operation that I have to wait for(please don't worry too much, I'll be OK. Really. I promise). 

I thought I was going to have the operation Monday, but instead I spent the day having tests and getting medicated. My type-A personality was getting stomped all over because I wanted to get it done.

Don't waste time.

Just do what needs to be done and let me recover, because I have super-important things to do and this is just in the way.

Get me?

I am a doer. I am a get-'er-done-er type person. I don't saunter. I march.

The problem is that I wanted to march in and take control of a situation over which I have no control.

And that's where I messed up first.

I lost control over my schedule and that made me crazy.

I spent a whole day subjected to someone else's schedule, which to me equated wasting time. I actually laid there in the hospital bed counting how many hours I'd wasted on this "fool's errand." That made me super cray-cray!

And rather than allowing the peace of the Lord to calm my heart (because, let's face it, I was in a situation where someone else was in control. So I should have just sat back and enjoyed a day off.), I allowed the loss of control to not only steal my peace, but my joy and my testimony.

By the time I arrived home, I was not only in physical pain, but I was tired, cranky and bitter.

May I give you a piece of unsolicited advice?

When you are in pain, tired, cranky and bitter do not talk to anyone but Jesus.

Whenever we are these things, our tongue has a way of running away with itself and if the only person we talk to in that unbridled moment is Jesus, we at least still have our testimony and reputation intact.

Unfortunately, I had a moment of temporary amnesia and forgot to only talk to the Lord and I went on ...

wait for it ...

Facebook.

I can hear the collective groan right now.

Fortunately for me, the amnesia wasn't so bad that I posted to my wall. No, but to whom I posted was bad enough. In my anger and bitterness I made a few insulting remarks about the country I live in, shut the laptop and went to bed.

I wish I could erase that moment.

I really do.

It was beneath me to say what I said, and you're probably thinking, "Don't be so hard on yourself. We've all done it. People get over it and move on."

That's true.

But, the one who made the mistake sometimes has trouble moving on.

I'm that type of person.

I'm harder on myself than I am on anyone else I know.

I extend grace liberally to those around me, but I'm very stingy with myself. Everyone else is allowed second, third, fourth, 20th chances, but I have only one chance to get it right.

Zero tolerance for mistakes.

What do you do when you've messed up and you feel like you can't move on from it?

1. Realize that your guilt is probably really pride. My inability to grant myself grace is really pride. I have to be perfect. You know why? Because I have to be the best. I have to be 100 percent on my game all the time because I only want people to see the best of me now.

I know, I'm also very self-deprecating. It's an odd balancing act of sharing my past faults, "but look at me now. Now I'm perfect. I've moved on. Improved."

Not so much. Because yesterday I proved that I still haven't bridled my anger nor my tongue!

2. Realize that fruit takes time to grow. The fruit of the Spirit can't be ordered at a drive thru as you sail through life. "Ummmm ... yes, hello. I'd like an order of self-control, meekness and could you throw in some joy with that too? Thank you!"

Wouldn't that be nice?

But no. When you plant a tree, you don't get fruit on it for several years. And the first year, you may get just a few apples. It takes time, growth, pruning and a lot of care to grow fruit.

So we need to be patient with ourselves, because God is obviously patient with us. Otherwise, He'd have used a different illustration, such as vegetables. You can plant vegetables and have a harvest in just a matter of months, as opposed to fruit that takes years!

3. Forgiveness is extended in two directions. Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is yourself. Especially when you have high expectations of yourself. Sometimes it's easier to forgive others because you don't expect as much from them as you do yourself. But when you don't allow yourself to fail, you have trouble extending forgiveness to yourself when you do.

But refusal to extend forgiveness to yourself will drive you into a rut of self-condemnation.

As you rehearse your failure, you continue to heap condemnation on yourself until you stumble under the sheer magnitude of its load.

Let. It. Go.

Forgive yourself.

Surely others have forgiven you. And if they haven't, then that's an issue between God and them because God has forgiven you.

I'm writing this to myself tonight and already I feel better.

But the best thing we can do for ourselves when we've failed is:

4. Learn from our mistakes. Don't use your failure as a switch to constantly batter yourself, use your failure as a pointer to teach yourself a lesson.

Same tool, different purpose!

God wants to use our failures as launching pads, if we'll just surrender them into His hands.

I have.

Will you?

Rosilind Jukic, a Pacific Northwest native, is a missionary living in Croatia and married to her Bosnian hero. Together they live with their two active boys where she enjoys fruity candles, good coffee and a hot cup of herbal tea on a blustery fall evening. Her passion for writing led her to author her best-selling book The Missional Handbook. At A Little R & R she encourages women to find contentment in what God created them to be. You can also find her at Missional Call where she shares her passion for local and global missions. She can also be found at on a regular basis. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +.

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