How you look at your own life matters. How you see yourself is either propelling you forward, or it’s holding you back. I assure you, there is tremendous power in your own view of yourself.

You may be missing some of life’s greatest opportunities all because you don’t see yourself as worthy. You may be sidelined, not because of all you can’t really do, but because of all you believe you can’t do. This situation you’ve been stuck in may be nothing more than a self-created circumstance dreamed up inside the walls of your own mind. It’s the story you tell yourself.

What story do you tell yourself about your potential? About your abilities? About your past? About your future?

I assure you, if you tell yourself there’s something wrong with you, pretty soon you will have manifested proof that indeed, there is something wrong with you.

By the time we are 35 years old, 90% of our thoughts are the same on a daily basis. Yip, you looked in the mirror yesterday and thought the same thing you thought today. You’ve thought to yourself every day this week how you really don’t feel like working out. Every day you’ve thought about those piles of laundry, and every day you’ve kinda hated them. Every day you’ve thought about how messy your family is. It’s all the same. Same ol’ thoughts on repeat.

Your mind is operating on a continuous loop. Same ol’ story, over and over again. And you wonder why your life feels boring. You wonder why, even if you have it all, you’re less than thrilled with it. You wonder why nothing really ever seems to change and that ache within for something more just never goes away.

90% of your thoughts are the same dang thoughts you’ve been thinking for years!

Girl, what have you been thinking?

Those thoughts manifested feelings. (I’m not being weird – it’s science.)

Did you know, your body feels the effects of a thought as if the event had actually happened? Case in point, I have a slight cause of claustrophobia. It’s totally a mental condition. It typically only rears it’s ugly little head on airplanes, or like that one time I got stuck deep in a cave in Arkansas and couldn’t find my way out. The pitch dark tunnel I was in, thinking it would lead me out, kept getting smaller and smaller as I slithered my way through … until I couldn’t. I couldn’t fit through the next tiny opening. It was the end. I was going the wrong way. Deeper into the cave. I couldn’t breathe. My chest became tight. My mind felt like it was exploding under the pressure of a million thoughts that lead no where other than I AM STUCK.

If you too have a touch of claustrophobia, you just felt it. You felt panic and all I did was describe it. It didn’t even happen to you, but you felt it. Why is that?

Because your thoughts produce emotions that make your body release chemicals as a stress response. If you think negative thoughts long enough, this natural internal stress response will affect every cell in your body. The production of vital proteins will shut down, weakening your immune system. And you know what will happen? You will literally think yourself into sickness.

Your thoughts can create disease.

And girl, you think your enemy in this life doesn’t know this? That’s why your mind is the battleground. The devil knows the power of your thoughts and he attacks you there.

Have your thoughts made you sick? Have your thoughts made you feel weak, helpless, useless, and utterly destined for a life void of meaning, purpose, joy and happiness?

It seems like you would just change your thoughts and stop this negative cycle in your life. But here’s why that’s so hard: Your thoughts and emotions (this cycle of thinking and feeling, feeling and thinking) becomes addictive. It is addictive because it creates an identity for you. You now believe what you think and how you feel is WHO YOU ARE. And as you see yourself in this way, nothing changes and your destiny appears to be set in stone.

I’m fat. I’ve always been fat. I will always be fat.
I come from nothing. I will always be nothing.
I choose the wrong men and I will always choose the wrong men.
I lose control. I’ve always lost control. I will never be able to control myself.
I’m not a morning person. I’ve never been a morning person. I will forever struggle waking up.
I am a habitual quitter. I never finish what I started. Why would I even keep trying, I will never follow through.

And now you believe that’s just who you are. Your thoughts have created feelings that have triggered a chemical reaction within your body, rendering you incapable of doing anything different. It has become your identity.

But Sis, let me speak some truth into your life right now, THIS IS NOT WHO YOU ARE. This is who you think you are. You don’t have to continue to see yourself like this. You don’t have to always feel this way. This can change.

This isn’t some new age problem we’re dealing with. There’s a vivid story in the bible that illustrates this exact phenomenon, found in Numbers 13. The Lord had promised Moses and the Israelites the land of Canaan would be theirs. God told Moses to send men ahead of them in Canaan to explore the land and it’s people.

So, 12 men went exploring for 40 days. When they returned to Moses, they reported a land indeed flowing with milk and honey just as God had promised. Clusters of grapes so huge they had to be carried by two men. It was a paradise compared to the desert they were currently in. But there was one problem, the people in this land were strong and powerful.

And here it comes, verse 33 they say “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Understand, this was nothing more than the story they had told themselves. Did they actually speak to the people of Canaan? No! They were hiding and spying, watching from a distance. They were never told by these giant people that they looked like tiny grasshoppers, that was their own story, their own thoughts, creating their own feelings, which caused them to run home in fear.

This fear spread throughout the Israelites. Everyone was afraid to move forward and take the land ahead of them. The result? They wandered in the desert for 40 years. Those same thoughts that told them they were grasshoppers were on a continual loop. Every day, same old story of being stuck.

They died in the desert and never tasted all life could have been for them. Remember, this was the land God had promised them. He had already made a way for them, but they never got to see the way because their negative thoughts dismissed them from the opportunity.

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes.

What’s your version of this?

I seem insignificant.
I seem unable to change.
I seem incapable of progress.
I seem not good enough.
I seem broken.
I seem flawed.

And so you feel it. You feel it all. It doesn’t even have to be true. It doesn’t even have to be actually happen. Your thoughts create the emotions that trigger reactions within your body to respond. And on this continual loop of thinking and feeling, feeling and thinking, you have attached yourself to this as your identity. Now you’ve been tricked into believing the stories you tell yourself, and the destiny it leads you to.

Oh Sis, what opportunity are you missing because of the story you’ve been telling?

There were 2 of the 12 men who were sent by Moses to explore this land, who came back with a different report. They too saw the strong and powerful people of Canaan, but it didn’t overpower the story God had told them. God had told them THIS LAND WOULD BE THEIRS. That was their singular focus.

Numbers 14: 6-9 “Joshua and Caleb, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

There was no talk of grasshoppers. Why? Because they didn’t see themselves as grasshoppers. They didn’t have those thoughts, therefore they didn’t feel those feelings, and they didn’t believe that story. They knew this “THE LORD IS WITH US AND HE WILL GIVE US WHAT HE HAS PROMISED.”

And they were right. Of all the Israelites, only Joshua and Caleb, the two who refused to believe the negative story of certain defeat, were the ones who would live to see the day they would take the land God had promised. The story they told themselves on repeat was quite different. They felt strong. They felt powerful. They felt led. They felt blessed. They felt destined for more than this desert.

And they were!

So, does it really matter how you look at your own life matters? Are you really being either propelled forward or held back by how you see yourself? Oh absolutely. More than you can possibly imagine.

So Sis, you gotta know what God says about you. You need to dig deep for your truth.

Deuteronomy 28: 11-13 MSG “God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won’t have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be the top dog, never the underdog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today.

Don’t miss today’s opportunities from God because you don’t see yourself as worthy. Don’t sideline yourself because you believe you can’t.

It’s time for a new story. A new identity. One that aligns with the truths of God!

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