The Accused

By: Anne Ferrell Tata, cbn1.com

Jesus answered, “You’re mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power.” Matthew 22:29 (GW)

When I think about the many years I spent beating myself up for just about everything, I want to cringe. For years, I marched to the drumbeat of voices in my head telling me: “I’m not good enough. I’m a terrible person because I have terrible thoughts. God would not love me because of the choices I made. God could not forgive me because of the things I had done.”

On and on the self-condemnation went. I believed God loved others, but I simply could not believe He loved me.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I understood I had an enemy. I knew his name. What I did not quite comprehend was the accusations I heard loud and clear were essentially from my enemy. Satan must have been delighted knowing one of God’s Covenant daughters was being consumed daily by the weight of a self-imposed guilty verdict.

When Jesus declared to the Sadducees in Matthew 22:29, “You’re mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures or God’s power,” His declaration was meant for me as well. I was mistaken about the way God thought of me. I did not know the Scriptures nor God’s power.

In the Matthew 22:23-32 passage, Jesus was speaking to the Sadducees about resurrection and the afterlife. The Sadducees were trying to trap Jesus. They didn’t quite understand whom they were talking to. Jesus’ point was appropriate for my situation. How many times do we believe the loud and lying voices we hear in our head? How many times do we worry or fear or fret because we either don’t know or don’t believe in God’s power?

God gave us His Word. He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. He made covenants and promises, but if we don’t get to know Him by spending time with Him or in His word, we may live out our lives believing lies.

Things began to change for me when I met a more mature Christian sister. She walked alongside me and encouraged me to get to know God personally by studying His word. The more I studied, the more my eyes opened to truths.

I was overjoyed when I learned the truth of what God thinks about me.

I am “His beloved daughter in whom He is well pleased,” Matthew 3:17 (NLT)

“I am accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV)

I am “the apple of His eye.” Psalm 17:8 (NLT)

As the “apple of His eye,” I am greatly cherished and thoroughly protected.

I found new freedom when I learned “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” Romans 8:1 (NKJV)

Over time I learned my battles were not “of flesh and blood,” and I must fight with the weapons of God’s word!

When I was assaulted with a reminder of some sin, I responded to the thought with, “yes, that is true, but the Blood of my Savior Jesus Christ redeemed me, and He told me in Isaiah 43:25, …”

“I–yes, I alone–will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.” (NLT)

I witnessed “when my enemy came in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord raised up a standard against it.” Isaiah 59:19 (NKJV)

When voices try to tell me, I am unworthy or unwanted, I now say, No! I reject that thought! I remember the truth,

“Even before God made the world, God loved me and chose me … and decided in advance to adopt me into his own family through Jesus Christ … and it gave Him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:4,5 (NLT)