You ever hear a song or come back to a location, and then memories start flooding back? Often times for me, it happens outside of my control. In just a moment, I start reciting and recalling everything from that past season. The sights, the smells, the thoughts, the feelings, and sometimes even the wounds. Recently I had an experience just like that. I found myself in a scenario with someone that triggered old feelings and thoughts that I had about myself. These feelings and thoughts were rooted in lies about my worth and my identity. That I was not worth much and that I will always be that way…
In life old thought patterns, beliefs, and feelings do try to crawl back even if you’ve overcome them in the past. They have a way of finding you when you are vulnerable, and they intoxicate you with their familiarity. Thinking those thoughts and believing those things feel familiar. So familiar that they masquerade around like truth. Yet just because it feels true, sounds true, looks true, doesn’t make it truth. That’s the prison of familiarity. Just because it’s what we’ve known most of our lives or because it feels familiar, don’t buy into the lie that it’s true.
Lies and thoughts we had about ourselves are like a really old pair of shoes. We become comfortable with them. They’ve been broken in and we have grown accustomed to them as well. We have tons of mileage with them and memories as well. They are familiar. But they just absolutely stink! No going back, just throw them out. You have outgrown them no matter what you feel.
I believe there are two misconceptions on feelings. The first is that just because I feel a certain way, it must be truth. The second is that I have to act upon everything that I feel. Both are false! My feelings must be in submission to my faith. There will be times when I don’t feel like worshiping God, but in those moments faith must trump my feelings. Many times though people crucify feelings as bad or evil, I am not of that camp at all. Yet I must be mature and realize my feelings though real, is not always the reality I live out of. No parent wakes up in the middle of the night to tend to their crying baby because they “feel” like it, but because of devotion. Feelings are important as is faith, and I want both to be about my devotion to God.
If you find yourself in a place where old thoughts, beliefs, and feelings are bringing you down, don’t buy into the lie that just because those things are familiar, they are true. Remind yourself of the truth of God’s word on who you are and who He is. You are an overcomer! Not just someone who has once overcome, but someone who is constantly overcoming. You are loved! Live in that reality today.