Each week we feature a devotional, book review or testimony ~ a “Devotional Spotlight”, written by a woman in our ministry. We hope you are blessed in reading Susan’s devotional!
“Who Told You That?”
Who told you that?
A mother you could never please?
A father who never had time to listen?
A loveless husband that reminds you his desire is elsewhere?
A boss who humiliates and belittles?
An abuser who took your innocence and blamed you?
A scale that is creeping upward?
A child who has turned away?
A dream dashed?
A grief that consumes?
A standard unmet?
These voices, unheard by those around us, are deafening in the quietness of our souls. They shape us, they cripple us with their half truths and lies. We break. Shame emerges. We hide.
It didn’t take long for shame to enter God’s perfect world. The Garden was splendid and alive. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. Can you imagine? A dark voice enters, it sounds right, some of what he says sounds like what God, their friend, has told them. The choice is made. They listen to the half truths and the accusations against all that is beautiful and right. Everything changes, breaks and begins to die.
As God called to Adam and Eve in their shame and their hiding, He asks, “Who told you that?”
Jesus knows what it is like to face the dark swirling voice of the accuser. He was tired and hungry, he had been alone in the desert for 40 days and nights with nothing to eat. Three times the accuser tries to lure Jesus and three times Jesus answers with the only thing that will dispel the insidious power of the one who tries to lure us away, “it is written, it is written, it is written.” Jesus clung to the written words of God and found life in the wilderness.
Jesus, God’s final Word, is the voice of life and truth. His words heal. They bring hope and joy. They drown out the lies of our accusers. They wash our broken souls with loveliness and light. His is the voice of a Lover, tenderly calling out to his beloved. He longs for you, is pleased with you, is smiling at you. He is enthralled by your beauty. Listen to His life giving words.
Yet the dark voice continues to swirl and confuse, calling into question God’s words.
We must know God’s words, study them, believe them and speak them to each other. Not because that’s what nice Christians do, but because our lives depend on it! When dark accusations and fleeting temptations begin to weigh heavy, ask yourself, “Who told me that?” Then overcome the darkness with the light of His words. It is written, it is written, it is written.
