Freedom to Run
Michele-Lyn Ault

With my soul bleeding and my heart aching, barely making sense through my ugly cry to a friend on the other end of the phone, I spoke the lie I believed, “People like her don’t bother with people like me.”

As I said those words, it was as if I was removing a bandage from an old wound that I thought had long ago healed.

“God wants to clean the wound. And He wants to heal it,”my gracious friend spoke through the phone.

I thought I was done with the struggle. Only, I had to go deeper to find it. When I did, I discovered who was hiding, still. Cowering in the dark corners of my soul was a girl who still saw herself worth less than what gets caked on the bottom of one’s shoe.

Believing no one would pay mind to her.

Believing she was a failure.

Believing she was a nobody.

Believing she was not worth anybody’s time.

Believing lies.

That girl was me.

Over the years—when you hear the voices scream often enough—you begin to believe them as the truth. Lying voices that resounded in my mind’s ear every step I attempted to take, every idea I considered, every dream I tried to pursue, “Who do you think you are?”

I was ashamed of the struggle, so the lies stayed in darkness and I stayed in shackles.

The lies come relentlessly as an assignment of the enemy to thwart you from fulfilling your purpose, because your purpose is in opposition the devil’s plans. Your purpose is to shine bright the Light in his world of darkness. The devil hates light and you illuminated as the light of the earth.

“For you formerly were darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of the Light…” — Ephesians 5:8 NASB

The enemy wanted to keep my mind’s eye shrouded in darkness. I needed a light shined on those lies that kept me in darkness. So God sent other light bearers. Their words and their stories shined a light on the deep seeded lies in my heart.

Here is what I could not see. When I said, “People like her don’t bother with people like me,” it meant I feared her greatness, because of how it amplified my feelings of nothingness.

The lie I believed was that my self-worth was wrapped up in my performance, measured by who I know, who knows me, in lists of accomplishments, in public measures of success. Standing next to someone who has all these things in great measure, I felt negligible.

It is the truth that sets us free. I began to see God’s people for who they are, not who they know, who knows them, or what they have accomplished. In turn, I was able to see myself the same. To see that the ground really is level at the foot of the cross.

Months after reading Love Idol I am able to share with you this redemptive story. Love Idol presented me with truth to not just illuminate, but counter the lies.

Lies that we are blind to hold us captive. It is the truth that frees us, and the truth you and I need most is the truth of how God sees us.

“By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you…” — Ephesians 1:18

Jesus is calling you to run free. But you cannot run your race all tied up. Truth will cut you loose.

It is time, friend.

Michele-Lyn is a wife and mama to four. She blogs about making a home, motherhood, missions, and embracing beautiful messes, while learning to live a life surrendered. Because of these words in Matthew, “Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven,” she opens up about her messy, imperfect life so it would, somehow, help you open yours even more fully to God. She has a heart for the nations, poor, and bound, and deeply desires to live her life in a way that it might set another free. She’s an advocate for World Help, and you can find her @MicheleLynAult on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest. But, Instagram is her favorite.

THE LOVE IDOL MOVEMENT

Click here to find out more about the Love Idol movement.

Click here to purchase the book that inspired the movement.

Click here to join us on Facebook as we lay down our Love Idols and declare our #preapproved status in Christ.

THE PRINTABLES

Click here to print the black and white preapproved cutouts.
Place these where ever your Love Idols have lurked!

A pink PreApproved printable: to frame, to put on your refrigerator, to give to a friend.
Click here to print. My gift to you, brave soul!