Last week, we touched on conversation and confession…

We hear through conversation and confession.

What they say about you, and what you say about you.

And sometimes, you may not have people around you who will be there to encourage you. Sometimes the people around you are even more doubtful than you are. Sometimes the people around you can’t see the light God has placed in you.

And in those circumstances, you cannot rely conversation. You must push for positive confession.

See that’s why when you go to the church they say:

“Repeat after me…

I am the head and not the tail.

I am a lender and not a borrower.

I am above and not beneath.

I was wonderfully and beautifully made.

I was saved by grace through faith.”

Maybe not as much with the last one, but you get what I was trying to say.

See what we say, has power.

But pause there.

When I say power, I am not talking about speaking things into existence.

I was at church last Wednesday and the Senior Pastor said something great:

Your thoughts become your words.

Your words become your actions.

Your actions become your habits.

Your habits become your character.

What we need to understand is that what we tell ourselves, has power.

What we think about.

What we say about ourselves.

How we perceive ourselves.

We often become the product of our words.

And I can say, that I am the product of what I hear.

I am like a sponge. It’s ridiculous.

I love it and hate it.

Listen to too much of something and I’ll talk that way.

Watch too much of something and I’ll walk that way.

And sometimes when I am surrounded by certain conversations, or certain thoughts, I begin to act that way.

My belief begins to move in that direction.

And I’d like to ask you…

If you were the sum of those conversations you have, what kind of person would you be?

If you were everything you told yourself you were, would you be better or worse than what you actually are?

We need to learn to confess the word of God.

That’s why we need to be all up in the word of God.

How am I supposed to confess what God has said about me, if I aint even know what He said?

It’s like trying to be a witness when you weren’t there – everything you say is taken with a huge pinch of salt.

It all begins in the mind.

“Lord please keep our minds, For we know that everything that lives starts in our minds.” – Darrel Walls, The Creative

So let’s get back on track.

The four men with leprosy.

They’ve got a decision to make.

There’s a choice.

Do we stay here and wait to die?

Do we stay here without realising what God has made us to be?

Do we stay here, where we are comfortable?

Or do we strive for purpose?

Do we call for His name?

Do we try to be all He made us to be?

And when I see this, it makes me think: How many times have I made the wrong choice?

How many times did I choose to wallow in my current state?

How many times did God present me a way, and I said no way?

How many times did I choose death over life?

So before we continue, I’d like to encourage you with this:

There’s always a choice, and God is always an option.

Will you see it as an obstacle or an opportunity?

Will you see your situation as a problem or a pathway?

Will you push forward, or will you settle?

You know what’s crazy…

People notice when you settle.

People notice when you are working below standard.

People notice when you are not using all you have in you.

And maybe, just maybe, we need to start forcing the people around us to treat us differently.

Talk to me like how God sees me.

Apply pressure.

Force me to be who God called me to be.

Raise my standards.

Encourage me.

Don’t talk to me, don’t treat me and don’t approach me based on how I see me.

May our conversations and confessions be with God’s will in mind.

Now, back to the men.

They’ve recognised their position.

And they are thinking about taking action.

They are deliberating.

2 Kings 7:4 (NIV)

4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

Look at this:

“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

See sometimes, we think ourselves out of doing what God has asked us to do.

A lot of the time we have faith, but we need to activate it.

God’s will should make us willing to move.

Looking at these men, they weigh up their options:

We stay. We die.

We go. We may die. But at least have the opportunity to live.

And of course I wasn’t there, but this is how it played out in my head.

They are looking at each other, and one of them say:

“I can’t die doing nothing. If I die, I die. But let me die doing something.”

What a mentality.

If I’m gonna die, I’ll die. But at least let me die in purpose.

If its not gonna work, it’s not gonna work. But let me try God’s way.

And the truth is, some of us will stay still, because we are afraid of what will happen if we try the “God thing” and we don’t get out of it what we wanted.

Let’s be honest.

Sometimes, we don’t pray for things, because we are scared what will happen to our faith if we don’t get what we want.

Sometimes we don’t move, because we are afraid of taking responsibility if it does not work out.

Sometimes we don’t try, because we are afraid that it is already too late.

But God wants us to know that we can put our faith in Him.

That it is not too late to come back.

That there is another option.

You don’t have to go out like that.

Good day. Bad day.

God is God.