‘Crash the Chatterbox’ by Steven Furtick
“Because The Voice You Listen To Will Determine The Future You Experience”
When we’re terrorized by thoughts, we can find it difficult to practice distinguishing lies from the truth. But overpowering that which holds us back through insecurity, fear, discouragement, and condemnation is possible. The whisperings we so often buy into because we hear it not only from outside, but within our own heads and hearts. What is this costing you in terms of your joy? What is it costing you in terms of your initiative? What is it costing those around you?
Steven calls this chattering away at us, (The Chatterbox). Using many of his own personal examples of inner dialogues, he provides some helpful ways to get rid of negative thoughts, but also stresses how this is a daily challenge. The box never just stops, but can be muted and our mind renewed by our awareness of the resistance.
Furtick says: “I read online that the average person has more than sixty thousand thoughts per day and over 80 percent of these thoughts are negative. Is that accurate? I don’t know. But let’s think together about the possibility that 80 percent of our thoughts are not only devoid of any power to help us but are also actively working against us. When we allow our thoughts to go unchecked, a steady drip of lies cements the wrong patterns within our minds, building a Berlin Wall of bad beliefs.
I wonder how much of its forty-eight-thousand-word quota your chatterbox has already filled today.”
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~“The chatterbox wants to inundate us with logorrhea.”
~“The danger of missing out on something great is often much greater that the risk that comes with stepping out.”
~“This is one of the main reasons we struggle with insecurity: we’re comparing our behind –the-scenes with everybody else’s highlight reel.”
~“People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. —SETH GODIN”
~“God speaks in past tense about battles I am currently fighting.”
~“Take the first half of the equation the enemy is presenting to you, insert grace and truth in the middle of it, and you’ll discover a much different outcome.”
~“I tend to be one of those people who takes great pride in calling it like I see it. I say things like, “I’m not being grumpy or negative or pessimistic. I’m just keeping it real.” “I’m not complaining. I’m just calling it like I see it.” But people armed with a spirit of gratitude know that often it is what you call it. So what if, instead of calling it like we see it, we began to call it like God says it?”
~“Would’ve, could’ve, and should have. This is the language of condemnation underscored by the passivity of regret. It’s a dead language.”
~“God whispers because he’s close.”
~“Also, sometimes perhaps we stand by passively, waiting for God to fix the issues that He’s called us to fight in His strength. If we’re going to overcome the thoughts that hold us back, first we have to give up the hope that they’ll ever go away. Every second you spend wishing God would take away a struggle is a forfeited opportunity to overcome.”
~“Accepting God’s acceptance of me doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying. It means I’m going to stop trying out. And I am intentionally redirecting my obsession.”
~“The Enemy does his best work in the darkness of our ignorance and speculation. He hammers away with what-ifs in the workshop of thoughts we are too afraid to face.”
~“Isn’t this a microcosm of how our lives feel sometimes? I don’t completely understand the rules, and I’m surrounded by others who are smarter. Fitter. Funnier. Better. But when we narrow our focus and know where to look for the approval of our Father, life takes on a glorious simplicity. The burning question is no longer “ What did they think of that?” Or even “What did I think of that?” Not it’s only “God, were you good with that? Thumbs up? If you’re good, I’m good.” His acceptance becomes my guidance and my reward.”
~“You have to own what you’ve done, but it doesn’t have to be who you are.
In Insecurity: (your mistakes disqualify you from God’s love) God says I AM.
In Fear: (the future is full of danger) God says HE WILL.
In Condemnation: (you are worthless and rejected) God says HE HAS,
In Discouragement (you can’t be the person you want to be or accomplish the things you want to accomplish). God says I CAN.
~“And it was not the crow of condemnation but the look of the Lord’s Love that brought Peter to a place of repentance.”
~“Even in the times when God calls us out on something we’re doing wrong, his purpose is to raise us up. Never to beat us down.”
~“We don’t have to fear what we face when we know who we’re trusting in.”
~“Every time God calls out a deficiency in your life, you can be assured that he is simultaneously offering an invitation.”
~“When you understand what the enemy’s after, you can make a plan for protecting it.”
~“Don’t let what you expected keep you from what God wants you to experience.”
~“The only force in the world powerful enough to overtake fear is the full-grown love of God.”
~“We allow our lives to be labeled by what we did, rather than anticipating our tomorrows according to what Christ has done.”
~“If this God has chosen you, while totally knowing even the worst parts of you, then you no longer have to live up to anything. Instead, you are now empowered to live out of an awareness of divine acceptance.”
~“But at the bottom, you see that the same Rock that holds up your life in clear skies is supporting your future when everything around you shakes and rocks and reels.”
~“The only opportunity the chatterbox ever has to download lies into our heads is if we have allowed it first to delete the memory of who we are in Christ.”
~“If God is always speaking, it’s not a matter of me getting Him to speak into my life. It’s attuning my heart to His frequency so I can hear what He’s been saying all along.”
~“Let God’s truth speak to you. Let His word supersede what others have said, what you’ve been telling yourself. You might just discover that there’s so much more God is calling you to do that what you’re currently experiencing.
~“What guidance was God trying to give you today that you didn’t hear because it was buried by negative noise?
~“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.” 2 Corinthians 10:5