Renouncing lies - Believing truth

She grabbed hold of my wrist, tight like a shackle, and leaned in close.  I could smell the morning's coffee on her breath and saw the weariness in her eyes at the start of a new day.  "I can't do this anymore..." She whispered it frantically again, "I can't do this anymore... I hate this and I can't do this anymore.  I hate myself and I hate my kids and I hate my life.  And I can't do this." Our children were playing together at the park and we'd just put our things down.  All I had asked was a simple, "How you doing?" and out it flowed, from the heart of a pent-up woman standing too terribly close to the brink.  And the most frightening part of all was that she could have been you, she could have been me.  A simple, well-intentioned, loving mom and wife who was taking the fiery arrows of the devils lies right in the heart.  She clutched me like I could save, because she knew she was going down.

 

Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. [“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”] (Matthew 17:18-21)

Can a woman, in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, be possessed by Satan and his demons? No, I don't believe she can. But she can be oppressed. So thoroughly oppressed she feels possessed. Still, unable to claw his way into our souls, somehow his ugly whispers can seep into our thought-life like sulfuric poison. Slipping in stealthily, lies make their beds in our minds.

I know this full well, because, like this sweet friend of mine, I'd found myself speaking similar lies as though they belonged to me.   "I am not good enough; I do not love enough; if I were more spiritual... then it would be different, I'd have the fruit of God's Spirit baring fruit instead of this rancid stuff."

Alone in my room I'd cry out night after night, "That's not the truth, Satan you're not welcome here!  I love my family, I can do this, I love my kids, I love myself.  I am fearfully and wonderfully made! They are fearfully and wonderfully made! I can do all things through Christ who give me His strength.  He is stronger than you are and He's going to win in the end.  So get out of here, you bastard!  Christ is my peace, in His presence there is fulness of joy, I choose to consider this all joy, knowing that the testing of my faith produced endurance, that I might be perfect and complete lacking in nothing when this is over..."  Out they came, scripture-truth hidden for years, combating the enemy's fiery darts.

But still, the war raged on.  Day after day, negative thoughts about myself, my kids, and my marriage would slip from my lips in the quiet chamber of my room as everyone napped and I folded clothes.  And then I'd sob, "I keep praying, I keep believing, why is he not fleeing from me?"

One night these words came quick like an answer: "...this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

The very next day I reached out to a Godly woman and asked her to pray over me, to pray over my entire home.  I didn't tell her much, just asked her to pray.  Of course she came fasting.

* Let me preface this by saying that I wasn't raised in a Holy Spirit, standing-up-raising-hands-anointing-each-other-in-oil-and-speaking-in-tongues home, but this friend of mine did all the above. Then she asked me, as my eyes remained closed, to tell her what I was seeing."

And I was seeing.

I saw Jesus, clear as day, on His knees with His fingers in rich soft soil. And I knew in an instant that the soil was my heart. There were weeds all around and he was gently combing through the supple dirt and lifting each gnarly root out. When he got to one particularly terrible weed I gasped, because there seemed to be no end to the root system. I started weeping uncontrollably, shaking and crying as she gently stroked my back, all the while jesus was pulling gently and the serpent-like body of the root kept coming up and up without end. Finally I cried out loud, "There is no end to my pain, there is no end... I cannot do this... I hate this... I hate this... I hate this... It will never get better."

Crying even now at the memory - ashamed to confess the home those lies had made for themselves in my soul. But the story goes on... because Jesus kept pulling and eventually the claw-like torn from the earth and cast aside.

There I was, torn apart and empty in the end. But this dear woman didn't let me rest, immediately she asked what I needed to replace the lies with. I started weakly mumbling truth, "I love my children, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, God knows the plans He has for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give our family hope and a future. I love my children." My voice grew stronger. "I love my children and I love my husband. And I trust You Lord! You did a good job when you wove me together in my mother's womb!" And stronger still. "I trust You!"

Only a time or two in these past years have I been tempted to let those lies slip back in. But I know whose voice it is now. They are not my thoughts. And so today, let me encourage you to remember what is true. You do not hate your children. You do not hate your life. You are not less than the women to your right or to your left.  You are incredible, as a matter of fact! And your husband does love you. And Christ will redeem your brokenness, because that is what He came to do - repair and redeem and restore.

So much wonderful truth to implant in the bare and fertile soil of our hearts, especially if you are fasting through this series with us.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1) "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:32) "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36) "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Corinthians 3:17) "He has not given you a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and a sound mind through Jesus Christ our Lord." (2 Timothy 1:7)

What lies do you need for Jesus, the very gardener of our souls, to pull out by the root? And what seeds of truth should you implant in their stead, so that you are never again enslaved by shame?

Let my heart be sound in your statutes; that I be not ashamed. (Psalm 119:80)  I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11)

Jesus is alive and He came to set us free! Dive into His Word today as you fast and pray, renouncing lies, believing truth!

Pray with me: Dear Lord, we believe, eradicate the weed of our unbelief that we might live the abundant life you came to bring. Amen.

(Link over here for 40 Scriptures for a 40 Day Fast.  If you want to receive this post and others directly in your inbox, please sign up to receive email notifications.)

Sugar Fast - Because it's time to get a handle on our emotions, our days, and the negative self-talk

Wild-eyed and desperate, she walking toward me with a child on her hip.  The kids hopped out of the car and ran full-throttle for the karate studio as she leaned into the open window, looked me square on and said,  "I'm an absolute wreck.  I saw online that you're going to do a 40 Day Sugar Fast and I just ate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to get me through the rest of the afternoon.  Just now, right before I walked up I popped a whole one into my mouth. I'm a wreck."  She licked her fingers something fierce, then told me about the poop in her toddler's bathtub and food on the floor and toys all around and the crying (theirs and hers).  "My son doesn't even take it personally when I yell anymore.  He knows I'm a wreck." I asked if she would join me for the fast. Forty days without sugar. Forty days without running to food to get her through. Forty days of running hard to Jesus for His strength. Forty day not diving into the pantry, but diving headlong and needy into God's Word.

"Yeah, I probably should," she said, looking away. "I'm all over the place. I'm a wreck."

Mothering can do that.  Marriage can do that.  Work and balancing it all can do that.  LIFE can do that.  No doubt a diet coke can get you through till dinner, or a spoonful of Nutella as the kids play or have another timeout, or that steaming mug of vanilla creamer with a splash of coffee... whatever it takes.  And it doesn't take much, just a Reese's peanut butter cup at 3 o'clock in the afternoon - every afternoon.

"I'm a Wreck."  She said it with conviction and owned it as her identity - the sign she'd hung around her neck, then hung her head in shame.

Has negative self-talk named and claimed you?  

Have you given up believing that you can be whole and hopeful, soft-hearted and soft-spoken again?

Maybe you've told yourself that you've screwed up too many times with the kids and with your husband and with God and with yourself.  You've believed the lie with your own voice, "I've failed as a woman, as a mom, as a wife..."  It's the inner-dialogue of your days, and so you slip away and grab another handful of chocolate chips to silence the conversation and make yourself feel better for a time.  But the sugar lifts you up only to cause you to crash hard, just like it does your children.  Reinforcing the message.

"I'm a wreck."

Do you have lies that you've bought into, lies that have become the lens through which you see yourself?

Well, today is Day 1 of our 40 Day Sugar Fast, and we aren't just fasting from sugar, we're choosing to replace what is not true with truth.  Taking out the sugar, cleansing with water; starving out the lies, inserting true thoughts and words; ripping out angry responses, and speaking life to one another in our homes.

As we do, our testimony talk will change.  Testimony talk is what we say out loud about what we believe - and each time we hear it the pathways in our brain go deeper in believing it.  But guess what, those thoughts you believe can change!  How you cope and how you eat can change. How you think and how you talk and how you love and how you parent and HOW YOU TESTIFY can change.

"I'm a wreck," becomes, "I'm a woman in need of Jesus."

"I can't do this," surrenders to, "with Christ all things are possible."

"I am hopeless" begins to hope again.

Here's some of the testimony talk I've received either face to face of in comments on the blog and Facebook these past days.  People believe things, you see?  Some true and some false.  What will you believe about yourself and about the next forty days?

We are fasting from sugar, to reclaim the sweet truth of who we were made to be.  Though life is full of challenges, we will not be bound by strong holds, not sugary crutches, bingeing to fill our hurting hearts, or alcohol to numb the pain.  We are taking our emotions, our days, our marriages, our addictions, and our negative self-talk to the cross of Christ, because He came to give us life and life abundant that we might shine pure and bright and unencumbered for Him.

That's our testimony talk, shining bright in what we think and say and how we live.

You were made to let your light shine... If the sugar-induced depression, mood swings, explosive words and tears have darkened the light-shining life you were saved to lead, then join me for these next forty days. We are fasting from sugar, so that our bodies might stabilize.  But this isn't just physical, this is holy.  Light shining, testifying, child loving, husband loving, holy lives that don't need sugar to get us through our days.  We need Jesus!

Therefore, as we take out the lies, let us insert scriptures that give us courage.

I am gathering a list of verses to remind us what is true when we are tempted to believe what is false in the days ahead.  Tell me, what lies are you throwing down, here on Day One?  And which scripture-truths are you choosing to replant and believe instead?  Name and claim 'em in the comments below, because this isn't just about sugar, this is about setting things right, right now.  Believing what is true.

We've got this!

We've got this, because He's got us!

Let your light shine - a 40 day sugar fast to help lift the clouds

Whether you're a single mom, married mom, remarried mom,

stay-at-home mom, working mom,

grand mom, step-mom...

or a complicated mix of the above,

there's one simple call on every mother's life:

Let your light shine!

Jesus spoke these words about Himself, "I am the Light of the World," then He passed the torch to us, His followers, in Matthew 5:14 - "You are the light of the world!" Yet, somehow, over the course of our long mothering days, our lights can flicker dim, until they all but die. There are too many reasons to count, I'm sure, darkening our lives and snuffing out our testimonies of light: the worries of this world, the challenges of marriage and child rearing, financial stress, broken hearts, broken dreams, dashed expectations, a lack of healthy lifestyles in the busyness of life, even depression brought on by a chemical imbalance, to name of a few.  All of these things, and so many more, can work like a bushel (from the old Sunday School song) hiding our little lights.

While I'm not going to address all of the factors that blow strong against our call to shine, I am inviting you to join me for a 40 day fast from refined sugars!  It is my belief that much of our mothering stress comes back to our inability to control our emotions. We give in to the stress and then parent with stress, adding stress up upon stress to everyone in our house.

Often we deal with the anxiety by running to the half-empty bag of chocolate chips in the pantry, rather than running to God in His Word.

So you see, this fast is both Spiritual and physical, as we commit to denying ourselves sugar, that we might taste the sweetness of Christ - and then share Him with those we care for most - shining His sweet love right where we are, in our home lives.

Moms struggle with sugar addition as much as our sweet-toothed kiddos. Just like them, we experience sugar spiked highs and sugar crashing lows. Though we desire to practice the fruit of self-control and hold every thought captive, to put on compassion and gentleness, be slow to speak and quick to listen...  sugar makes it hard on us.

Simply put, SUGAR DOESN'T MAKE US SWEET!

40 DAY SUGAR FAST! January 16th - February 24th

Sign up here

By signing up you'll receive an invitation to join our private Facebook group and receive weekly emails to encourage you along the way. Since I won't be providing a hard core dietary plan to follow, simply some suggestions, you may want to order a book online.  You can find a more rigorous guideline in the pages of The Daniel Plan: Forty Days to a Healthier Life by Pastor Rick Warren, or the secular, practical cookbook, The Whole 30, a 30 day guide to total health and food freedom.

If you'd like a great companion book to talk you through your relationship with food, in light of who Jesus is in our lives, I heartily endorse FULL: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction by Asheritah Ciuciu. As a special treat, Asheritah will actually be leading us through each chapter in our interactive Facebook group this year! So make sure you sign up here!

Ladies, you are going to love our community each day, as we support and hold one another accountable as experience the bondage breaking power of Jesus! Setting us free from the strong-hold of addiction, sugar induced meltdowns, depression, crabby attitudes, adrenal fatigue, and angry parenting.

The ultimate goal is freedom and emotional stability so that you might let your light shine, from your healthy stable heart, out into your home.  That's my own personal and ongoing focus, and the theme of my encouragement to you.

JOIN US FOR THE 40 DAY SUGAR FAST!

Sign up today!

I am not a nutritionist, nor do I play one on television, I'm simply a woman who has known the dark side of sugar-addiction while trying to love my family and community well.  I believe that men and women who are committed to letting their lights shine for Christ, are constantly under attack, and sugar has become a common weapon forged against loving homes; a chain, holding us back from abundant and happy lives with our dear ones.

Don't you see the way your children bounce wildly and then crash when they've ingested too much sugar?  Well, moms and dads, men and women, are losing control of themselves too, forsaking self-control, losing their tempers, hurting their relationships, shunning the light.

Below you'll find links to related posts that friends and I have written during our last two 40 Day Sugar Fasts.  Join a great congregation of moms who are committed to taking our cravings to the One who made us to crave... Him.

1 - Sugar-fast - Because it's time to get a handle on our emotions, our days, and the negative self-talk

2 - Renouncing Lies - Believing Truth

3 - 40 Scriptures for a 40 DayFast

4 - Made to Crave

5- Return to Me

6- Streams in the Desert

7- Taste and See

8- Strongholds or Strong Arms

9- When not to fast - a guest post on eating disorders by Kelli Stuart

10- Social Media Fasting - Because we want to care what God "likes" more than man

11- Learning to fast - a guest post by Asheritah at OneThingAlone.com

12- Muslims and Christians both fast and pray - Do you know what you believe?

13- I Want God - Is there anything else I should be fasting from?

14- Falling off the wagon - Falling into Grace

15- That time I ate ice-cream and then remembered I was fasting - a guest post by Julie at Happystronghome

16- Just a Closer Walk with Thee

17- Flash the Donkey - because sometimes a donkey has something to say about fasting too.

18- Fasting Like a Child - a guest post by Christy at The Write Season

19- Praying for America - learning to pray for others

20- Do you think of prayer as a sort of magic trick? There's a magic deeper still...

21- What fasting taught me about an angry woman and a kind God - a guest post by Katie Reid at Echos of my Heart

22- When God takes a straight-blade straight to a woman's heart

23- Chocolate Avocado Pudding - a sweet recipe

24- Self Control - this fast has taken lots of it - and so will the next challenge

25- Fasting Dr. Pepper - a guest post by Laura Mitchell at Hope Anchors

Don't miss this ongoing series. Sign up here to have future posts delivered via email straight to your inbox.

My Personal Plan

1) Pray. While this is a physical fast it is also a spiritual one.  Our goal is to break the ties that so easily bind us, holding us back from the fruit of God's Spirit displayed in our lives.

2) Scripture.  Choose a scripture or two or forty, to meditate on when as your body craves sugar and you feel like giving up.  (One of the blog posts in this series will have some suggestion). You are purposefully taking something out of your body (through fasting), therefore, this is the perfect time to replant something new (choose God's Word for strength and support.)

3) Dump the sugar.  If it's not in your pantry you will not be tempted at home.  That means the chocolate chips you have stashed away, the candied nuts, left-over Easter treats, those packages of brownie mix, the half eaten tub of ice cream, and your heavily sweetened coffee creamers. (ouch) Don't count the monetary cost.  $60 worth of pantry items is less than the price-tag of having a professional come in and trash it for you.

4) Restock your kitchen.  Just like you are fasting from sugar in your body and replacing those empty places with the truth of God's power to get you through, restock the shelves of your pantry and fridge with protein, vegetables and low sugar fruit items (grapefruit, berries, granny smith apples are your best options).  Avoid simple carbs like white bread, pasta, and white rice, as they turn to sugars in your gut.  Natural sweeteners such as maple syrup and local raw honey are good alternatives to sugar when used sparingly.

5) Plan your meals.  I find that when I eat the exact same things each day, I am less likely to follow temptation down a side-street.  Every morning I have a protein rich smoothie, for snacks I have a piece of fruit, raw carrots or a handful of almonds, lunch is either eggs and canadian bacon, a salad with light dressing, or sandwich meat wrapped around a cheese stick.  If you want to simply have regular meal, go for it, just don't load your salad with high calorie dressing and slurp down a lemonade.  Make a plan ahead of time and stick to it for forty days!

6) Invite others.  Include your spouse, your children, and your friends.  Let's be a community that says goodbye to testimony trashing sugars!

7) Expect Spiritual Attack. Though this is a physical fast, we have spiritual reasons for doing it.  The devil loves nothing more than hearing you raise your voice at your kids.  He delights in your emotional meltdowns at bedtime instead of seeing you make love to your husband.  He wants you staying inside in the dark of your home, lethargic and depressed, rather than enjoy an energized day with your family and neighbors.

8) Stock up on vitamins and minerals.  If your adrenal glands have been burned out by sugar, caffeine, and stress, then look for an adrenal support capsule at your local health food store. Vitamin B is also good for stress, that that's what chases you to your daily spoonful of Nutella.

9) Exercise.  Once you make it through the first 5 days your energy is going to skyrocket.  Layer in some exercise and those healthy endorphins will be an added bonus.  Get ready to find yourself smiling more often!  Your family will notice it too!

10) Pray.  Let's bookend this list with prayer.  "Dear Lord, we want to let Your lights shine into our homes and out into the world, but our moods have been all over the place lately.  Give us the courage to do this fast, that we might learn to depend on You and not sugar crutches and short term fixes.  You came that we might have life, and abundant life at that, we believe that this fast will help us to experience the life You came to give us.  Speak truth into the empty places of our hearts as we fast and pray.  We do this so that our lights will shine strong and sure, that others may see the light and glorify You! Amen."

Let me know in the comments if you'll be joining me in the forty days ahead.