What's In Your Closet?

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

Psalm 139:14

Can I be honest? I wanted to give up before today. Changing the way we use our words is difficult. Before I started this journey, I was unaware of how often I complain and gripe about even the smallest things and unaware of how my words impact those around me. This new awareness makes me realize how much more work God has to do in me. I am an ongoing project!

 

Speaking of projects, when was the last time you cleaned out your closet? Do you know what’s in your closet? I usually get the urge to purge my closet when I have to spend several minutes looking for that one shirt I know I put in there but can’t find it anywhere. That’s when I know it’s time to clean out the closet.

 

How does that relate to words? Well, think about where we keep the words we speak to ourselves.

 

Writer Jennifer Rothschild says in her book, Me, Myself, and Lies,  that the words we say to ourselves are stored away in our “thought closet.” When we say negative, hurtful things about ourselves in our head, those thoughts are stored away. The more you tell yourself that you are unworthy, unloved and unable, your thought closet gets cluttered and there’s no room for the truth. You have trouble finding what God says about you. How do we clean out the closet?

 

God’s Word.

 

I believe God knows us so deeply that He knew we would need to hear over and over how much we mean to Him. So, He filled the Bible from Genesis to Revelation with words of his unfailing love.

 

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.   Psalm 86:15

 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

 

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

 

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

1 John 3:1

 

And this is just a few of the words God speaks about his love for us.  You see, if God, our Creator sees us as worthy, loved and able, we are.

 

Today, if a thought comes to your mind, that is less than what God knows about you, capture it and replace it with the truth.

 

You wouldn’t say those things to another person, why would you say them to yourself? Replace the negative, hurtful words in your thought closet with God’s words.

 

You are a beloved daughter of the King. You are perfect in the eyes of God. You can do anything through Him.

 

Once we understand how God sees us, the only thing we can do is overflow with gratitude and thankfulness. I am still in awe when I stop and remember that I am a child of the One True God. With that thought in my closet, there is no room for anything else.

Father God, praise you, praise you, praise you. You are a God of unfailing love. Help us today to see ourselves the way you see us. Replace our words with Your Truth.