Accusation And Condemnation (1)
Monday January 25, 2016
Certain things affect us and may contribute to relapse if we dwell on them. God has a better view that supports our new life in recovery.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1 NKJV)
Hearing accusation or condemnation from others or even from within ourselves has a negative impact on our self-worth. We tend to center our thoughts on words that say, “We are immoral”, “We are stupid”, or “We are a failure at whatever we try”. We may also tell ourselves we are not making progress in our relationship with God or our life in recovery. When we take our focus off God’s word and center our thoughts on condemning words, we begin to believe recovery is too hard. We start to believe we’re too messed up, it hurts too much, or it costs too much to change. One of Satan’s favorite tactics is to tempt us to make a wrong choice and then immediately accuse us of being weak and powerless to go forward in recovery. His one purpose is to get us so confused, so filled with pain and shame, so discouraged, that we simply give up and go out and pick up again.
I know that as soon as I’m gone, vicious wolves are going to show up and rip into this flock, men from your very own ranks twisting words so as to seduce disciples into following them instead of Jesus. So stay awake and keep up your guard. (Acts 20:29-30 MSG)
We need to ask ourselves if the words we are currently hearing in our heads, or from someone around us, are repetitious of words we have heard in the past which challenged our self-worth. Then we need to ask ourselves, “why do we believe these words?”. If we pay attention to accusing or condemning words, it is likely that we will follow the path of fulfilling what someone else is saying or even what we are saying about ourselves. This is senseless when the accusing or condemning words we are focusing on are limiting and even harming our well-being. We need to challenge all accusing or condemning words with the truth of God’s word in the Bible. Our recovery depends on what we believe and we need to focus on words that build us up and abandon all thoughts that pull us down.
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (Philippians 4:8 MSG)
We would do well to think on these things!
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