Sometimes the enemy will bombard your mind with negative and debilitating thoughts, thoughts borne out of, even fed by, someone's words or actions against you. It can be a word, a look or body language, sent to discourage and weaken you.
          Even as negative thoughts have time and again bombarded my mind "space", I have to constantly speak to myself, speak into the atmosphere, declare God's Word over my life, my mind, my space. The enemy also has been using people's words. Words are powerful but how powerful they are, is dependent on me. Will I receive them? Will I accept them? Too many times I hear negative words and my response usually reveals whether or not I have received those words spoken. I have to constantly remind myself of God's Words, His assurance and the people He has used to speak into and over my life. I have to remember that no matter how painful the words, they have no life unless I give them life, they have no hold unless I allow it. 
          Stop allowing wrong words to invade your space! Stop giving life to those words by believing them! Choose to believe what God says about you, NOT what the devil says through others or through your own negative thoughts about yourself! Remember the devil is a LIAR! Therefore, his words are LIES and have NO power over you!
          There is a song sung by Lauren Daigle that a friend of mine recently shared with me because it had ministered to her so profoundly. Some of the lyrics are:
I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am
Because I need to know
(Chorus)
You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don't belong oh You say I am Yours
And I believe, oh I believe
What You say of me
I believe 
      
          It's what God says about you that matters. And if life and death are in the power of the tongue, then it's time to give yourself life by speaking God's words that give life instead of the devil's words that bring death. God says and shows in so many ways that He loves you. He'll never leave you nor abandon you (Hebrews 13:5b). He says His plans for you are to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). In God you have hope and a future! He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). That means you are beautiful in His sight! When you are a child of this kind of God who has forgiven and loves you, how can you possibly think yourself less than or worse than the excellent things He says you are in Him!!!!!

         Give God your best and trust Him with the rest.
          As we take a quick glance through the Bible, we see example after example, not just of God's goodness but of HIS best. God never gives us anything less than His best. He gave His precious Son to sacrifice His life so that many might spend eternity with Him ... that's God's best. He rescued His people, Israel, time and again from their enemies, even when they were not always faithful to Him ... that's His best. Even when they rejected Him, turned their backs on Him and followed after other gods, when they cried out to Him in their distress, he rushed to deliver them ...  that's His best. In Genesis, He created the earth and every good thing in it then placed man in it to take care of it ... that's His best. Even now He causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on both the just and the unjust ... that's His best. In every area, God displays the best of Himself. It is never too much for Him to give His best. So why should we give Him anything less? Yet, we do and He STILL gives us His best.
          I can look at my own life. When I backslid and moved away from God many years ago, God never gave up on me. He continued to watch over me, protect me, and just plain love me. I had moved away from Him but He didn't go anywhere. He was right there all the time wooing me back to Himself. He was and still is the faithful Father just waiting patiently for me to come back to Him. He never made me feel like an idiot or a fool. And when I made my way back to Him, He was right there to heal every hurt and brokenness I had brought upon my own self because of my disobedience. He never reminded me of my mistakes and always encourages me to look forward to the bright future He has for me. That's God's best for me.
         God does not depend on our goodness to respond with His best, He just loves us enough in spite of our shortcomings to give us His best. So, to serve a dumb idol that you have to carry or even feed and that can't give you anything in return is pretty foolish when you really think about it. Why not just serve a God with a proven track record for giving His best ... the best care, the best love, the best covering, the best hope. No one and nothing can compare to Jehovah God. He is God all by Himself. He doesn't even need us to survive, we need Him. Yet, He pursues us with His best, with His all, because He loves us and in His eyes, we're worth it! You can't get a better valentine than that!