How does the truth set you free?

I had sent this to someone struggling with negative thinking about themself and wanted to share this with all.

I know you've heard the term "you are what you eat".  Well God says we're what we speak...out of the abundance of the mouth comes blessings and cursings.  You keep speaking cursings over yourself.  Don't continue to say "I'm not saved", "I'm not worthy", "God must hate me", etc.  We seem to want give up on even wanting to try and believe God will help us to do better. 

Sometimes we focus more on what God won't do for us instead of trying to see what He HAS done.  If you have kids, God gave them to you.  A job, thank God.  If you're healthy it's a blessing.  A roof over your head?  Some people don't have that.  The list goes on.  But we focus on what we don't have.  I've done it all my life and that is changing in me little by little.  I'm learning to be grateful for what I DO have and to know that every GOOD thing comes from the Father. 

The ONLY way you will grow to a point where you can believe you're God's child and begin to speak more positive words and stop speaking these cursings over yourself is to get into His Word and stay there.  Whether you feel like it or not, read it, play it on CDs or MP3s at night while you sleep, in the car while you drive.  It might take years to break the negative thoughts against yourself, but you will NOT break them without the Word as it says...the Word is truth and the truth shall set you free. 

You may know every bit of this, but you won't get out of the negative thinking on your own.  Believe me, I tried and tried.  But only staying in the Word has been bringing about changes.  That's why it says it "will" set you free.  You have to actually read it, study it, get it into your spirit.  You may not understand all you read, you may think negative when you read, feel condemned by what you read.  But by continuing in it, those condemning and negative thoughts will begin to subside and be replaced with the truth. 

This is all entirely up to you whether or not you make the effort to get into the Word consistently or not.  But I'll ask you...do you like feeling as if God doesn't care about you or feeling as if you won't make it to heaven or you're not saved?  Can you stand to continue feeling that way indefinitely?  You have to make a choice whether or not you want to feel differently and make the effort to get in and continue in the Word for as long as it takes to change the mindset that you're not worthy or that God can't love you or that you can't be what God wants or whatever negative thoughts you have.

Write yourself a list of what God says you are.  IE:  I am a child of the most high King.  I have a sound mind.  I am loved.  I have been made righteous.  The Holy Spirit is in me. Etc.  Put this list somewhere that you are every day and read it every day.  Mine is above the visor of my car.  I first started reading that and I didn't feel any of it.  I had negative thoughts.  IE: I'd read I have a sound mind and would immediately think I'm so confused and stupid.  Now I can read it and believe it.  But you know what?  I've been reading that list for over a year now.  This is why you have to get truth down inside you.  We are fed negatives, by parents, teachers, bullies at school, etc.  And we believe those lies.  It's like programming a computer with garbage.  Now you have to reprogram your computer (brain) to weed out the garbage with good code/words. 

That's why God's Word is so powerful and has the power to change us.  God did NOT create anything that is worthless.  To do so would make Him less than God.  Therefore, NO ONE is worthless.  They can believe they are worthless, or not even care one way or the other.  But the TRUTH, God's Word is the only thing that can counteract the lies we've been fed and grown to believe.  He says I created you...therefore we're not worthless cause God doesn't create junk.  But it takes an effort on our parts to take steps to get into His Word.  You get into it and you start believing what He says about you and notice things turning around.  But don't quit just because they don't turn around this year, or the next. 

I sat in Sunday night service on January 26 during revival.  I'd prayed most of the day because I'd felt so bound up for almost 4 years.  I knew Jesus purchased our freedom on the cross, but I said "Lord, I don't 'feel' free, so please let me actually feel as if I'm free".  As I sat there that night and prayed this over and over still, I began to feel a HUGE weight lifting off me and it's like a whole new revelation came upon me.  I've felt so free and unbound ever since.  But that's taken almost 4 years of soaking in the Word daily.  I've read the entire Bible I don't know how many times.  I've read commentaries.  I've read over 30 or 40 Christian books on the battles in the mind and on speaking positive words, dealing with depression, etc.  I have bills I often cannot pay.  Three years ago, I'd have been crying, panicking, blaming God.  Now I let Him know I'm afraid, I pray for comfort, I do what I can and wait for Him to give me a way to pay the bill.  I was 4 weeks behind on daycare until my tax refund came last week.  God may not have provided the funds right away, but He DID provide me with a daycare willing to wait and not kick my son out.  ;-)

The bottom line is we can make excuses that it's not working because we tried it...we read the Bible for a month or two, or even a year or two, and yet we still had issues we couldn't overcome, so we put it back on the shelf and just decided to keep believing the lies.  Some people might stay bound up inside for 10 years.  But if you're not in the Word, you're going to stay that way for life.  Since only "continuing" in the truth (God's Word) can set you free, why would you NOT want to stay in it?