We have flies everywhere. Last August it was ants, this summer its flies. 
Having flies try to camp out on your hands or buzz around your face is disgusting, annoying and down right frustrating. Last night as I tried to fix some food, the flies were all over me. I lost my appetite and gave up.Β It was the topper to an already crummy day.
It was then I had a mental snapshot of how I had felt like giving up all day. Troubling thoughts, like flies, were camping around my mind all day long. Defeating thoughts, discouraging thoughts, “everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat some worms” thoughts. ( that’s from a children’s song, not from a deranged mind!)
All day I had been processing through something I am going through. I DID Look up! with the problem and processing a few times, and it helped get me through that next hour. But, over time, as the day wore on, I got tired of shooing away the bad thoughts that were brewing as I was processing how to deal with something. So….at some point they overtook me and I got really discouraged.
The discouragement was just like the flies. You see the flies started one at a time, not so bad. Before long there were two, then four, then an army of flies in my house. Yuk! Still hate the mental picture of it. I swatted them when it was manageable, but as their army increased, I gave up and just left my post ( the kitchen).
Lies from Hell are like flies. They dog us, discourage us, change the way we view things, keep us from Looking Up to God, or come in like a swarm to discourage us WHEN we ARE trying to Look up! That leads me to this week’s verse AGAIN.
This Week’s Truth: Exodus 34:6
“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth.”
Abounding is used 420 times in the Old Testament and means ” a great deal, a lot”. A relationship of a covenant treaty that God made with Israel where He said that He would be thir Father and their God forever and take care of them. He was overwhelmingly loyal and nothing would break that loyalty. God is ultimate goodness.
And when it comes to truth…God is abounding in, alot of, “firmness, strenght, reliability, stability, dependability, security.” We are to relax in Him as a child would relax in his father’s arms.
In the moment that God tests your faith the longest and the deepest, don’t run away or turn your back on Him, but rather reach up and throw your arms around His neck and ask Him to show to you His mercy, compassion, and loving kindness because that is WHO HE IS.
And, when the lies that HE is something different, or that He is NOT there for you buzz around your pretty little head…get out a swatter and hit those pesty lies. They are lies. Shooo them away. Don’t walk away from your post, like I gave up and walked away from the kitchen. Shoo them away and get back to the business of living IN HIM.
Happy Long, Long Weekend! Have Fun, Be Safe…Buckle Into Jesus and Stay Fabulous!
Today’s Prayer
Lord help me to recognize when lies are taking me down and I am ready to give in. Help me to learn to swat them and move on in You.
Thanks Debbie for allowing the LORD GOD to use you to encourage me and so many other women! I buckled into Jesus these last 3 days with my seat belt really tight! I asked that he send a godly woman into my daughters life to walk beside her in empathy and HE DID!!! He is directing her steps as she is walking hanging onto her Daddy’s hand again!!
What an awesome God we serve!
Great picture for perspective – Thanks!
WOW! What a great way of illustrating the negative thoughts that take over our minds. We spend so much energy thinking about lies that the devil tells us, that by the time we need to be strong in our Christian walk, we are exhausted. Better to spend our energy shooing away the “lies” than allowing them to spoil our appetite for God.