What happens when we are focused on the lie? Allow me to provide an illustration: It’s the New Year and you have decided to join your friend at the gym and in a diet that eliminates all sugar for the first thirty days. No problem, right? Yeah, right! It’s now January 8th and your sister has a birthday. All you can think about is her favorite chocolate cake that will be at the party. You become consumed by the chocolate cake. All your thoughts are focused on the chocolate cake. The party is tomorrow and your ability to maintain your resolve for the diet with your friend is wavering. I mean, it’s chocolate cake!
So, you decide that you can conquer this temptation. “I am not going to think about the chocolate cake. I’m not going to think about the chocolate cake. I am NOT going to think about the chocolate cake.” What is the only thing you are thinking about? Yep. The chocolate cake.
You have to replace the thoughts about chocolate cake with something else: “I’m going to bring a sugar-free chocolate bar with me and focus on the blessing of time with family.” Problem solved? Not for all eternity, but maybe for the birthday party and today’s temptation.
Lacey’s Story (from chapter 6, Who Has the Last Word?)
Lacey needed to be reminded that she was not alone. Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, in a whirlwind of doctor’s appointments, x-rays, whispered conversations, concerned looks, and consultations, Lacey was sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. An osteosarcoma tumor had broken through the bone in her left leg about an inch and a half under her kneecap.
Lacey and her mom were not close before, but when she was yanked out of her junior year of high school so she could move out of state to fight the aggressive cancer, she developed a new appreciation and respect for her mom. Lacey’s mom gave encouragement and a never-ending supply of Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink™ through chemo and multiple surgeries, including the removal of the left leg bone and calf muscle.
Lacey’s mom was a rock for her daughter, but Lacey still felt very alone. Before leaving for Memphis, she felt as though she wasn’t the most popular teenager in the youth group, and was
unsure how many people in her home church in Baton Rouge even knew her. Now, she was three states away and all alone.
But as she was bombarded with texts, cards, calls, and notes that told her how much she was loved, that she was prayed for, and that she was not alone, the message began to sink in. To this day, an encouragement pillow signed by dozens of members of the church is a treasured possession as it reminds Lacey of the constant prayers and support of her church family.
When I asked Lacey if I could share her story and the way that God and the church helped her battle the lie that she was alone, she responded, “I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE FOR YOU TO USE MY STORY! I believe that I went through all that I did for a reason, and that reason is to help others who feel hopeless or who are going through what I went through. I'm proof that cancer is survivable, and if I didn't share my story to help others, even though it's really hard sometimes, everything I went through would have been for nothing!”
She continued, “James 5:11 is my favorite verse because Job is my favorite story in the Bible. Satan tried to tell me that because I was going through a hard time far away from home that I wasn't going to make it because I was alone. But God showed me that I had a church family that stood behind me more than I ever thought they would because I mattered more to God than I thought I did.” Amen! I applaud Lacey for sharing her story and for giving God the last word.
Have you ever had a time when you realized that you mattered more to God than you thought you did? Describe how He revealed his love to you and reminded you that you weren’t alone. (Be sure to include a verse that can, in the future, help you remember that truth again.)
This month, we are highlighting various portions of the book Who Has the Last Word? Cutting through Satan’s Lies with the Truth of God’s Word. We invite you to gather a group of women this fall and walk together to Recognize the Lies, Replace the Lies with Truth and Remember the Truth through specific scriptures.
#IronRoseSister #WhoHastheLastWord #WLW #truth