ME, MYSELF, and I

"We are told to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, and in order to do that we must know what to do with the pronouns."

LET’S TALK ABOUT PRONOUNS. Here’s one I particularly hate — YOU. Could somebody please turn off the YOUs in my head? You know. YOU messed up. YOU should have tried harder. YOU didn’t remember to … What if YOU …? YOU. YOU. YOU. Always accusatory. Or how about this one — SHE? Just for variety let’s refer to my mistakes in third person. SHE stands up. SHE turns around. SHE sits down again. Somewhere in there, I blew it. SHE is frustrated.

I have a name. Jesus knows it. The enemy knows it. But the difference is, to Jesus, I’m Suzanne, a born-again child of God. To the enemy, I’m a pronoun. A long, drawn-out hiss, SSSSHHHEEE. A possible failure in process. If only, SHE will …

SSSSTOP it. No thanks, enemy.

The enemy comes at YOU through YOUR mind. (Okay, sorry. I’ll try to stop capitalizing them.) He has one agenda—to get you to take hold of a thought. Often, they are behaviors we might trip up on. But they are also these repetitive accusations. Fingers pointed in our direction about what we didn’t do right or what we did that he didn’t like. A continual focus on the past that comes snapping back at us at random moments. Stare long enough, and YOU will see all kinds of things YOU shouldn’t. (Sorry, I did it again. My fingers slipped.)

We are told to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, and in order to do that, we must know what to do with the pronouns. Here’s one we need to focus on which will solve the problem. HE. If we’d set down the YOUs and SHEs and look at who HE is, what HE did, and how HE acted. ACTS, present tense. HE is alive. Then we would see what we need to change. HE is our example. HE loved the entire world and died for every individual, not simply a corporate, “Okay, I’ll just lump THEM all together.” But that HE saw Suzanne D. Williams, who would be born on December 10, 1970, and all the footsteps SHE would take from that day onward. HE died specifically for ME, and MY behavior toward others should reflect that. MY behavior toward MYSELF should reflect that.

We take a thought by saying it. We can listen to the thought and select it by opening our mouth and repeating it. Or we can refuse it in the same manner. It is by listening and never speaking that the accusations become so unending. When we choose to say what God says about us in His Word, the pronouns will cease. The enemy lives for opportunities, and our not saying, “No thanks,” leaves him a crack to crawl through. (Interrupts writing process … WILL YOU SHADDUP, defeated enemy! Sorry about that, there he goes again with the pronouns.)

So you hear the thought. So the pronouns are flying in your direction. Open your mouth and speak the truth. I AM the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I AM not my own. I HAVE BEEN bought with a price. I WILL, therefore, honor God will MY words, with MY actions, with MY future. Because HE DIED FOR ME, and no pronoun can ever top that. My behavior, however, must imitate it.

When I LOOK at someone and see their mistakes, I NEED to stop and see Jesus instead. When I OPEN my mouth to say how THEY are … SHE IS SO … I need to stop and realize Jesus isn’t saying that about them. HE LOVES people completely with everything HE has in HIM, and I CAN either be like HIM or sound like the enemy with all those pronouns.

I CHOOSE to be like Christ, who loves ME.

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG)

“Therefore take no thought, saying” (Matthew 6:31)


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com