{"id":8656,"date":"2013-01-30T00:01:49","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T05:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=8656"},"modified":"2013-01-29T13:30:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T18:30:24","slug":"captivating-chapter-4-the-messages-of-our-wounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/30\/captivating-chapter-4-the-messages-of-our-wounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Captivating: Chapter 4 – The Messages of our Wounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, I stepped into the office of my counselor.\u00a0 Nervous and excited (but mostly nervous) I was there to discuss my past relationships with men.\u00a0 I was there to figure out how to forgive myself for the sins of my past.\u00a0 I was there to talk about my ex-boyfriends and the issues in our relationships.\u00a0 Boy, was I surprised when my counselor threw me a curve ball. We spent the majority of the time talking about the messages,\u00a0rather the lies,<\/b> I had come to believe about myself, about forgiveness, about relationships, and about God.<\/p>\n

Our wounds produce the messages we believe.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

These messages are exactly what the enemy wants us to believe, defend, and keep alive.\u00a0 As we defend these messages daily through our actions and thoughts, we give the enemy victory.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the truth: the only power Satan has over us is the power that we give him.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know your story, I don\u2019t know how you\u2019ve been hurt in the past, and I don\u2019t know how you may even be hurt in the future.\u00a0 But God does.\u00a0 God has messages for you to hear, too.\u00a0 He\u2019s waiting for you to trade in those evil messages that try to control you.\u00a0 He wants to exchange those messages for His messages of affirmation, love, beauty, strength, boldness, self-worth, and perfection in Him.<\/p>\n

Paul defines our methods of war against the enemy and his lies in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.\u00a0 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS<\/strong><\/em> <aka the messages, the lies>.\u00a0 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<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

So these weapons with which we fight…what are they? They are the spiritual armor of God found in <\/span>Ephesians 6:14-17: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Psalm34_4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So how do we gear up? I believe before we try to pile on all of the armor, we have to get rid of the stinky, smelly, worn-out rags we\u2019ve been wearing until now. \u00a0They stink!\u00a0 I encourage you to spend time today taking off those rags, removing those messages or lies that you\u2019ve come to believe.\u00a0 Some of the strongholds in your life may be apparent and some you may not know.\u00a0 Ask God to reveal them to you.\u00a0 Ask Him to remove the rags, to cleanse you, and prepare you for the future battles waged in your mind and in your heart.\u00a0 David writes in Psalm 34:4<\/strong>, \u201cI sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d He will deliver you, too.\u00a0 All you must do is surrender your strongholds to Him, and let Him heal your heart.<\/p>\n

Praise Him,<\/p>\n

Carissa<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Pray<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, we praise You for the power You have and the power You\u2019ve given to us through Your son, Jesus.\u00a0 Father, the enemy\u2019s lies are all around us; reveal those lies to us.\u00a0 Help us to denounce each and every one of the strongholds in our lives, surrendering them to You.\u00a0 Take them, Lord, they are Yours.\u00a0 Cleanse our hearts and renew our minds as You have promised. In your precious Name, Amen.<\/p>\n

Your Assignment<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sit with God today and ask Him to reveal the messages you may have come to believe. Denounce and surrender those messages to Him.<\/p>\n

What are the things you have come to believe about yourself through hurts you experienced as a little girl?<\/p>\n

\u00a0_____________________________<\/p>\n

If you are interested in joining this Online Singles Bible Study, click HERE<\/a>. \u00a0Once we receive your registration, we will email you further details.<\/p>\n

If you would like to send Carissa a private email in regards to this blog post, you may email her at: \u00a0Carissa@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, I stepped into the office of my counselor.\u00a0 Nervous and excited (but mostly nervous) I was there to discuss my past relationships with men.\u00a0 I was there to figure out how to forgive myself for the sins of my past.\u00a0 I was there to talk about my ex-boyfriends and the issues in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":8675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[1591,100,181,182,1533,1593,1592,425,571,841,1009],"class_list":["post-8656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-singles","tag-2-corinthians-10-3-5","tag-armor-of-god","tag-captivating","tag-carissa-markantone","tag-christian-singles-fellowship-group","tag-christian-singles-online-bible-study","tag-ephesians-614-17","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-john-eldredge","tag-psalm-344","tag-stasi-eldredge","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Psalm34_4.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-2fC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8656"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8677,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656\/revisions\/8677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}