1. Freedom for the Present Identifying the Lies We Believe and Replacing Them With Truth
Sue Bohlin
suebohlin.com

2. Changing Our Self-Talk
Self talk: the old, destructive tapes that run in our heads
Where do they come from?
Parents
Classmates
Shaping forces of the media
What we tell ourselves
Parents: “You are my precious princess” or “You’re such an idiot, you never do anything right.”
Classmates: “You’re really cool” or “Loser!!” or “Fatty, fatty, two by four, can’t fit through the kitchen door!”
Shaping forces of the media: “You’re worth it” or “Without this product you can never be successful.”
What we tell ourselves: “I can do it!” or “No one will ever love me.”

3. Changing Our Self-Talk
What to do:
Identify your tapes. “Lord, show me where I’m being deceived.”
Stop the tape player in your head.
Replace the lies with the truth from the Word.
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind –Romans 12:2
Biblical change: put off/put on -- Ephesians 4:22-24
Listen for the tapes. If you’re actively listening, you’ll hear them.
My tapes:
“I am damaged goods.”
“I have to prove myself all the time to compensate for being crippled.”
“I need for everybody to like me and approve of me.”
What does Freedom look like? Changed thinking.
Transformation in what and how we believe.
Trading in lies and deception for truth. We have to practice living in the light and truth.
The NT uses putting on/putting off imagery, like a garment.

4. Changing Our Self-Talk
1. Identify the lie
2. Renounce the lie
3. Ask God to speak truth to you
4. Affirm the truth in your mind
Affirm the truth in your mind through REPETITION.
We have to practice reminding ourselves of truth.
Another way to look at this journey from captivity in your thinking to FREEDOM

5. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
Christ lives in me; I trust Him to do this through me. (Galatians 2:20)
“I am a failure. I can’t do anything right.”

6. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“I am unloved.”
“You are precious and honored in My sight, and I love you.” (Isaiah 43:4)

7. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“My parents’ problems were my fault.”
“I am responsible for my parents (or my children’s) happiness.”
I don’t have that kind of power.
Each one bears his own load – Galatians 6:5
Each one is responsible for his own choices – Ezekiel 18
Ezek 18:2 "What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, 'The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children's teeth are set on edge'?
Ezek 18:3 "As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore.
Ezek 18:4 "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.

8. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
Only God is perfect
He has promised to hold my hand when I stumble.
Psalm 18:35
Psalm 73:23
I am longing for Eden
“If I mess up, that would be the end of the world. I have to be perfect.”

9. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“If I don’t do things right I can be abandoned.”
God will never leave me or forsake me. (Hebrews 13:5)

10. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:14)
I am made in God’s image, and that makes me infinitely valuable. (Genesis 1:26)
I am God’s masterpiece, His workmanship--His poem! (Ephesians 2:10)
“I’m nobody special.”

11. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“God doesn’t love me, let alone like me.”
He will take great delight in me, He will quiet me with His love, He will rejoice over me with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
I am precious and honored in His sight, and He loves me. (Isaiah 43:4)

12. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“God will speak and do things for others, but not for me.”
My sheep hear My voice (John 10:27)
God is no respecter of persons. He doesn’t play favorites. (Acts 10:34)
There is no partiality with God (Ephesians 6:9)

13. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
I am accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)
The Father has accepted me. (Romans 14:3)
Christ has accepted me. (Romans 15:7)
Not only am I accepted AND acceptable, but God delights to use the very thing I am ashamed of!
“Because I have __________, or because __________ happened to me, I am unacceptable.”
THE CRACKED POT

15. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
I cannot disappoint a God who knows everything and has no expectations about me.
I can accept myself as a work in progress, accepted and loved by God.
Jesus was a disappointment to His family too, because of their unrealistic expectations.
“I am such a disappointment to God, to my family, and to myself.”

16. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“I am damaged goods--I have scars.”
My scars are trophies of God’s grace!
Jacob’s limp
We will worship Jesus’ scars in heaven. Scars will be beautiful in heaven!

17. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
God’s approval is all that matters, and He approves of me. He not only loves me, He LIKES me! – (John 17:23)
Jesus wasn’t liked and approved of by everybody--and He was perfect!
“Everybody has to approve of me. It’s essential that everyone like me.”
Jesus’ Baptism: “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
John 17:23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

18. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“This pain will never go away. I will be hounded forever.”
I have a finite number of tears inside me, which God is collecting in a bottle as I cry. (Psalm 56:8)
Rev. 7:17, 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes

19. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“There’s something wrong with me because I am depressed.”
Depression is a signal that I need to address something in my soul or body. God will help me as I give Him access to my heart and my thinking.

20. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
I can adorn myself with a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in God’s sight. (1 Peter 2:4)
The King is enthralled by my beauty. (Psalm 45:11)
“I am ugly.”

21. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“I can’t feel God’s love”
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness! (Lamentations 3:22-23)

22. Lies/Misbeliefs Truth
“I’m too old to change.”
God is renewing me on the inside, day by day.
(2 Corinthians 4:16)
2 Cor 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
2 Cor 4:17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
2 Cor 4:18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.