I couldn't do anything about it. I was in front of the room being interviewed as one of the retreat speakers and I heard it. My cell phone. I had forgotten to put it on vibrate when the session started. Now, I was being asked about my family and my hopes for the weekend and I could hear my cell phone talking in the back of the room. You see, I have one of those old wonderful cell phones that announce the caller out loud! (I have had it for over three years and have yet to figure out how to turn that announcer off.) So here I was helpless in the front of the room with my incessant phone repeating something over and over again. I couldn't hear what it said, but I knew it was my phone.
After the speaker interview session, we had a break and I went to the restroom. As I stood in line, (you know how we have to do that with lots of women and three stalls) my friend Jennifer inquired, "Did you hear that cell phone talking in the back?" I was embarrassed to tell her that it was mine. She asked, "Did you hear what it said?" I told her that I did not have a chance to go check it because I came straight to the restroom. (You know, borderline emergency.) She said, "I wrote down what it said. It spoke volumes to me." I was confused. My cell phone announcer had spoken volumes to someone who had to listen to its incessant announcing? Jennifer explained, "Your cell phone kept repeating...PLEASE ERASE OLD MESSAGES."
I ran and grabbed my phone out of my purse and this was on the face of my phone:
The God who created the Universe and me, the God whose love for me is wide and high and deep and long, that same God has a message for me. But I have rejected that message many times because my recent memory bank was full of lies, labels, and false perceptions.
"You are not good enough."
"Quit while you are ahead so that they won't think you're crazy."
"You are ugly...inside and out."
"You have no message worth hearing. Why do you think you have been called to speak and write?"
"You are worthless."
"You are a bad mom, a pitiful wife, and a terrible friend."
"You are alone in this world. No one really cares about you."
So for me to really walk in the calling that God has for me (as we talked about on Monday,) I must erase old messages. I have to intentionally remove those false, deceptive messages about myself so that I can fully embrace God's beautiful message of love, grace, hope, mercy, AND purpose.
How do we do that?
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
We have to erase and demolish every old message,thought, argument, pretension, philosophy and thought that is contrary to who God is and who we are in Him.
Please erase old messages so that I can fill you up with My messages. ~God
Can you hear Me now?
Lord, we want to hear You. Please help us to tear down and erase any old messages that would keep us from hearing Your voice.
I would love to hear your comments and I would love to pray for you as well.
Unwrapping the gift of God's precious voice,
Kelli
linking with my friend, Joy at...
and
17 comments:
Fabo, Kelli!
great post:)
another thing we can do is remind ourselves repeatedly of God's wonderful promises about who He is or what He is about.
I have loved you with an everlasting love...
you are written on my hands...
I am you refuge and stength, a very present help in time of trouble....
to name a few. when we think about the truth of who God is vs. the lies that are in our heads, that helps us understand Him and what He is about...that His motives are not evil or vengeful.
WOW Kelli! This was GREAT! It was so good that I had to share the link to it on Twitter and Facebook! I read a lot of blogs but don't usually have (or take) time to share them. But this one was too good not to share.
Thanks :)
Keep up the good work :)
I love how HE uses an annoying, everyday things to get our attention. We all know not to listen to the enemy, but he is so good at getting to us where it counts that we have a hard time resisting & ignoring his lies. Funny how that obnoxious cell phone message spoke loud and clear the message HE wanted us to hear. I get almost giddy sometimes thinking how creative HE gets to draw us back to HIM! He is much more creative, interesting and funny than the enemy...it's a shame we make HIM go to such effort sometimes, but we'll never hear HIM complain! HE rejoices over us with singing and HIS mercies are new every morning...Praise God!
Thanks for letting HIM use you!
God speaks to us in so many ways! i loved reading this today. this is the 3rd or 4th 'message' God has sent my way telling me to empty the old stuff that i allow to keep cluttering my head and zapping me of my joy! awesome story!
Wow! Thanks for all the encouragement! This was powerful to me and my friend, Jennifer. And then when I spoke Sunday morning, I told the whole crowd. I love it when God speaks in unexpected ways! So glad He used this to speak to you as well!
What a great word from God even from the depths of your purse!
Came over here from WINGS on fb.
Just before I saw this post, I was thinking on 2 Corinthians 10:5.
I often hear most of the very lies you listed. One that is quite loud and frequent is "Just shut up. No one wants to hear anything you have to say."
Really a great message and reminder that we need to take every thought captive.
AWESOME REMINDER! (to empty my voicemail box) and to be ready to listen :)
Love that. Our God is so amazingly awesome.
Great comments about "Please erase old messages." How ironic that my own post over at www.jenniferdougan.com just said the same thing yet in the aspect of speaking truth into our daughter's lives. My teen daughter just melted as God's truth coursed through her. Powerful! Thanks for the double whammy by God through your site.
Have a great week.
Jennifer Dougan
www.jenniferdougan.com
Wow! Thanks for sharing this - a timely reminder.
Beautiful post. How it would change our lives if we erased the old messages.
I was just thinking about this yesterday while talking to my sister on the phone. She made numerous assumptions about a situation based on 'old messages'. It made me wonder how life would be different for me if I operated out of the assumption of new messages of love and being loved.
Cara
http://www.cara-deo.com (Streams in the Desert)
Love this! What a great reminder. I recently read a quote by Andy Stanley "Give up your version of you story and embrace His." When we can start seeing ourselves as God sees us, it can change us forever!
Awesome post.. I love how God speaks to each of us in very unique ways... but always right on time and strait to the point.
Thank you for sharing.
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