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• Who Has Last Word

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 

• Who Has Last Word

You can rob a bank with a toy gun because someone believes the lie. And while I am not advocating this practice, I am in awe of its reality. Ignoring the fact that robbing a bank is a wrong and illegal action, it seems ridiculous that someone would endeavor to do so using a toy gun. But which is the bigger fool: the robber using a toy gun or the banker that believes the lie and hands over the money?

A lie is only powerful inasmuch as we believe it and act on it. If the banker had been familiar with guns, maybe even owned a gun of his own, he might have readily recognized the fake and not become paralyzed by fear.

We are best able to recognize the lie when we are familiar with the truth.

Recognizing God’s Voice (from chapter 9, Who Has the Last Word?)
Elijah recognized God’s voice as a whisper (1 Kings 19:12-13). The sheep recognized and followed the voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10:2-5). It’s about knowing God, not just about Him, in order to recognize His voice of truth in the midst of trying times.

The more time we spend in the Word, the more we come to know His words, and the easier it is to discern His words of truth amidst the bombardment of lies.

My sister and brother-in-law were on a camping trip outside of cell range. But our other housemate needed to reach them in order to ask permission to bring home a puppy she wanted to adopt.

“Michelle! I can’t reach Kim and Paxton and I really want to bring this puppy home!” Shannon proceeded to describe the dog, and then went into her rapid-fire questions. “I need to know what you think they would say. I don’t want to get it and have it at the house without their permission, but there is no way the puppy will still be here tomorrow. It’ll only be like two weeks because, after that, I move out, and we’ll be headed home for our wedding... What do I do?!”

I considered Shannon’s predicament and responded, “I hate to speak for them, but I understand you really want the dog and want to at least check with someone who knows them well.” I continued with a few points that I thought they would make, and things that should be taken into consideration, like how their own dogs would respond.

Shannon thanked me and was going to try and call them one more time, but had decided that she would probably go ahead and get the puppy...

A couple of hours later, I met Shannon and her fiancé at the house to help introduce the puppy to my sister and brother-in law’s dogs. After the dogs’ initial introductions, Shannon looked at me, surprised.

“I forgot to tell you. I was able to reach Kim on the phone and ask her about the puppy. She mentioned every single one of the things you said she would. Some of the things she said were verbatim what you said!”

I smiled and responded, “Well, we kind of know each other.” Sisters, living in the same house, conversing, spending time together... I didn’t want to speak for her, but I felt confident that I would represent her to the best of my ability because I knew her and I knew her voice.

May we come to know God’s voice so intimately!

Satan’s lies scream in attack. God’s voice is a gentle whisper of comfort and hope in the midst of the storm. When we listen for God’s voice and are attentive to His words of truth, Satan’s clamoring is quieted. And God gets the last word.

Yet sometimes, we have trouble recognizing the lies on our own. Here is a story in which I helped someone recognize a lie she had believed for years (from chapter 10, Who Has the Last Word?):

“My son got diabetes and died from complications of the disease because God was punishing me for marrying a non-Christian... I’ve made so many bad decisions in my life that there is no way God wants to hear from me. I feel like I can’t talk to Him because I know He won’t listen to me.”

This was not a statement I expected to hear from a seventy-two-year-old woman, one who had been a Christian for years, but who was letting Satan have the last word.

Humbled by the scenario before me, I thanked God for the opportunity to speak words of truth and freedom into this sister’s life. She had been living her entire life entrapped by Satan’s lies, burdened by guilt.

I began, “You have three grown children, right?” A loving glimmer filled her eyes and she responded in the affirmative.

“And, even today, when one of your kids is in trouble or has done something wrong, do you want them to avoid you or come to you so that you can comfort them, advise them, and show them love?”

“Well, of course I want them to come to me!”

“And do you think that our loving Heavenly Father is any different when one of His children messes up? Don’t you think He longs to comfort us, advise us, and shower us with His love?”

“I’ve never thought of it that way before...”

The following Sunday, upon greeting my friend, her face was one of peace and she looked as if she had lost 100 pounds off her already small frame. The joy stemming from her newfound freedom was unquenchable. She had embraced the truth of God’s abounding love, giving Him the last word in her life.

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 #WLW #truth