I can change because He lives inside of me.

I can change.

These 3 simple words pierced my inner man as I walked to the gym after my time with the Lord in prayer and bible study.

I can change.

It was like suddenly layers and years of self-doubt and fear began to fall away as the Truth of the gospel pierced my heart in a new way.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Ephesians 4:1 NIV

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self,[f] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV

The Holy Spirit must continuously remind me what the Lord has taught me:

When God brings light into me life, He is not doing so to condemn me but to restore me. He is showing me because He wants me to be aware that He is about to come into my life in a radically profound way and heal my brokenness. Why? Because He wants to get the praise! When He shows me where I am and where He is taking me, then I can’t make the silly mistake of thinking that somehow I arrived on my own.

I am in a relationship with the Creator of the Universe, the Light of the world, and the by product of being continuously near Him, is that He is always healing me.

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Psalm 139:12 ESV

“Inner healing” is not some season I graduate from to be a better leader or minister, it is a lifelong journey that the Lord wants to walk with me through. He is my best friend. He is a healer. As long as I am on this side of Heaven, He will be healing me because light always consumes darkness.

I am not a project to God; I am His daughter. He wants me to live in freedom. He wants me to be whole and healthy. When God calls me to consecration, when He calls me to deny myself, when He calls me to pick up my cross, when He asks me to say no to certain relationships, it is because He knows me better than I know myself. He knows what I need.

One of the great lies of this culture is that healing and freedom can come when we accept and love ourselves. There is a dimension of truth to this but it is not the whole truth and therefore it is a lie. True healing and freedom only come from relationship with Jesus Christ. It will not come by affirming daily in the mirror “I am enough. I am capable.” This will only affirm that you yourself are your own god. We are not sufficient apart from the blood of Jesus. We must affirm ourselves in the gospel. We must affirm ourselves in the good news. We must affirm ourselves in Him.

I am nothing without Jesus. He is enough for me. What He has called me to, He will complete it through me for it is no longer I who live but it is Him living in me (Galatians 2:20-22).

This is the life giving affirmation that this generation needs! That we need everyday. There is someone who loves us deeply, who cares for us wholeheartedly and His name is Jesus. He Himself is God. He changes lives. He transforms hearts.

I don’t need to see myself better, I need to see Him. When I see Him, He will teach me how I should see myself in light of who He is, what He’s done, and what He will do.

I can change.

I can change not because I have the power to change myself but because He has the power to change me. I can change because when I surrender my will, He has room to move on my behalf.

I don’t need to be afraid of staying stuck. I don’t need to be afraid of my past. I don’t need to worry about my future. He is changing me, He is preparing a table for me, I am hidden in His arms.

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:16-19 ESV

I am confident. I am sure of myself because I know in whom I abide, I know the one in whom I have chosen to put my trust. I am not relying on my own strength. I am not relying on my own ability to plan and organize. I am not relying on my ability to strategize. I am solely relying on Him.

My prayer is this:

… Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

My hope, my desire is that every day I sing theses verses, I would be living them just a little bit more…

I'm so glad I learned to trust Him,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend
And I know that He is with me,
Will be with me to the end.

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus’ Hymn