Are you getting “Rooted”? Have you seen any changes in growing your relationship with the Lord? What’s the most notable change?
As we continue to read through the Rooted Bible Reading Plan, journal our H.E.A.R. entries, and memorize one verse each month, we should be able to recognize various moments of transformation or changes from who we were just a few months ago. But unfortunately, not everyone is excited about those changes. We have an enemy who would love to disrupt our progress.
And how would he do just that…how would he disrupt our progress? He likes to create doubt by lying to us and distorting the truth. When we start to doubt, we get discouraged and distracted. It only gets worse from there. We start to feel further away and disconnected from God and others. The Bible tells us Satan is the father of lies and loves to fill our minds with misdirecting nudges that make us question our resolve. With enough doubt, he can then get us to give up and return to our average, non-threatening life as an ineffective Christian.
That’s where he wants us…coasting along…thinking we’re “good enough”, doing just enough to convince ourselves we’re safe and sound. This is why he’s so dangerous. He feeds our minds with lies that seem sound but are hard to recognize lies. And in doing this, he sets us up for defeat.
We need to learn to recognize the lies. When we do, we can choose not to believe them and choose truth. We have to put our confidence in the Lord and not ourselves. We have to use the one weapon that Jesus used when facing the same enemy. He used Scripture. This is why we are working on developing the discipline of memorizing Scripture. When we hide God’s words in our hearts, we are trusting Him to help us overcome the lies. When our trust in the Lord and his word is greater than our doubt and discouragement, we are on the way to winning the battle. To do this well, we have to learn to talk to ourselves with the truth.
Dr. James Gills is a real man’s Ironman. The Ironman Triathlon is one of the toughest events for an ultra-athlete. Many people train for years just to compete in one Ironman event. Dr. Gills likes to do “Double Ironman Triathlons.” That means he completes TWO of them, back to back. By the way, he’s pulled this off six times! When asked how he could be successful in accomplishing this amazing feat, he simply replied, “I learned to talk to myself instead of listen to myself.” * That’s what we need to do. We need to stop listening to the lies the enemy has planted in our heads. How do we do this? We start by speaking the truth of Scripture that we have hidden in our hearts.
Keep memorizing Matthew 11:28 and look for opportunities to use it to repel any lies the enemy sends your way. Learn to speak Truth to yourself more than you listen to the lies. This will protect your “roots” as the Lord continues to grow the fruit of His Word in your life.
* The Garden, John Gordon