Crash The Chatterbox Quotes

Every second you spend wishing God would take away a struggle is a forfeited opportunity to overcome.

Because the voice you believe will determine the future you experience.

The One who lives outside of time invites you into a reality that is informed by His perfect plans to give you hope and a future. God speaks in the past tense about battles you’re currently fighting. And He buries the shame of yesterday in order to resurrect the moment you are in and sustain you in the season He is calling you to embrace.

And even when you can’t get seem to get your act together, your identity is secure and completely intact. Because in Christ, who you are matters infinitely more than anything you do or cannot do.

Would have. Could have. Should have. This is the language of condemnation underscored by the passivity of regret. It’s a dead language. The thing is, you can’t un-sin. You can only repent.

the voice you believe will determine the future you experience.

Accepting God’s acceptance of me doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying. It means I’m going to stop trying out. And I am intentionally redirecting my obsession.

Before you were born—before any of your defects were apparent to you—they were absolutely apparent to God. That didn’t stop Him from calling your name and setting you apart. He placed you on the earth at a certain time for a pre-decided purpose.

Isn’t this a microcosm of how our lives feel sometimes? I don’t completely understand the rules, and I’m surrounded by others who are smarter. Fitter. Funnier. Better. But when we narrow our focus and know where to look for the approval of our Father, life takes on a glorious simplicity. The burning question is no longer “What did they think of that?” Or even “What did I think of that?” Now it’s only “God, were You good with that? Thumbs-up? If You’re good, I’m good.” His acceptance becomes my guidance. And my reward.

Gratitude begins where our sense of entitlement ends.

People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves. —SETH GODIN

The only opportunity the chatterbox ever has to download lies into our heads is if we have allowed it first to delete the memory of who we are in Christ.

You can’t be afraid to stare into the pupils of the possibility of pain and see it for what it is.

The more deeply we reinforce our identity in Christ, the more fortified we will be against the onslaught of opposing voices in our lives.

The Enemy can’t keep you from being who God says you are. But he can blind you from realizing who God says you are.

What makes you think you have to turn your life around before you can completely commit your life to God? What makes you think you have to impress God with your obedience before He will impart His grace to you? What makes you think you have to do things to get God to like you, much less love you? What makes you think you have to be the perfect spouse or parent before God will perfectly love you? Many Christians spend a lifetime trying to achieve something that Jesus already achieved for them. God’s acceptance isn’t based on performance. It wasn’t for Jesus. And because of what He did for you, it isn’t for you either. The acceptance He had, you have. The love He unconditionally received, you unconditionally receive. Yes, Jesus was the Son of God. But through Him, you are a child of God with the same privileges.1 That includes the privilege of having God look at you and say, “I am well pleased.

I tend to be one of those people who takes great pride in calling it like I see it. I say things like, “I’m not being grumpy or negative or pessimistic. I’m just keeping it real.” “I’m not complaining. I’m just calling it like I see it.” But people armed with a spirit of gratitude know that often it is what you call it. So what if, instead of calling it like we see it, we began to call it like God says it?

It’s resolving to live with the mind-set that declares, My joy is not determined by what happens to me but by what Christ is doing in me and through me.

When you know who you are, you will know what to do.

But at the bottom, you see that the same Rock that holds up your life in clear skies is supporting your future when everything around you shakes and rocks and reels.

Also, sometimes perhaps we stand by passively, waiting for God to fix the issues that He’s called us to fight in His strength. If we’re going to overcome the thoughts that hold us back, first we have to give up the hope that they’ll ever go away. Every second you spend wishing God would take away a struggle is a forfeited opportunity to overcome.

The less I can depend on circumstances to define my identity, the more I must look to the Lord to reinforce His thoughts concerning me and to impress them into my heart until I respond as if it’s second nature:

the only force in the world powerful enough to overtake fear is the full-grown love of God.

Satan’s main job isn’t temptation. It’s accusation.

The Enemy does his best work in the darkness of our ignorance and speculation. He hammers away with what-ifs in the workshop of thoughts we are too afraid to face.

Because in Christ, who you are matters infinitely more than anything you do or cannot do.

What I struggle with is believing that God loves me, not just because He has to, but also because He wants to.

What is the fear of God, then? It is being terrified of ever being outside of His protection.

The only thing we ever have to be afraid of is that we would ever live one moment of one day outside the protection of the One who can command the wind and the waves to be still.

By learning to distinguish between the way God speaks and the way the Enemy speaks, we move toward words of life and grow in the ways of God.

The world of what-ifs is a black hole, and it will suck your joy, peace, and hope into its vortex if you venture near its vicinity.

There is solid rock at the bottom. If you have built your life on confidence in the promises of Christ, then you can dive into your what-ifs, and although you may lose your breath,

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)

When the devil wanted to lure Adam and Eve away from their true identity in God, he did it through the power of insinuation.

chatterbox wants to inundate us with logorrhea.

Crash the Chatterbox is about using that understanding to short-circuit the thoughts and patterns that the Enemy employs to disrupt the greatness God has initiated.

We can never hope to crash the chatterbox until the signal (God’s Word) becomes louder in our lives than the incessant noise around us that clamors for our attention and depletes our courage.

The Holy Spirit makes us more aware of our lack of holiness to stimulate us to deeper yearning and striving for holiness. But Satan will attempt to use the Holy Spirit’s work to discourage us.

I will not let the discouragement of what I’m going through make me forget the benefits of belonging to the God who has been so good to me. He has saved me, blessed me, forgiven me, restored me, satisfied me, healed me, crowned me, and renewed me.

Living your problems and loving them like locked rooms is much different from denying them or capitulating to them. It is believing that God is with you in the imperfect, even disappointing circumstances of your life. It is saying to Him with faith in your heart,

When you realize that God is the only One who really has any lasting reward to give, He becomes the only One whose approval you desperately need. You can rest in the fact that you have it—in full measure—because the work of God’s perfect Son, Jesus, secured your acceptance the moment you placed your faith in Him. Before you ever win or lose, God has turned His face toward you. He has chosen you. And He is pleased.

even when you go through hell, God is there. Only people who have been to the absolute bottom have the right to report with veracity: God Himself is at the bottom. His voice is there. And when there is only silence, He is still there. At the bottom of the deepest, darkest what-if imaginable is a faithful God.

His Spirit speaks with promptings that are not audible—often they are much louder than that—always in perfect harmony with the Scriptures and always resounding with perfect wisdom.

Not only does the Spirit set us free from chains that have bound us to our past, but He actually unleashes the Father’s vision of our future into our present reality.

The first truth is this: When it comes to hearing God’s voice, identity always comes before activity. And that’s a spiritual secret the chatterbox was hoping you’d never discover.

This is one of the main reasons we struggle with insecurity: we’re comparing our behind-the-scenes with everybody else’s highlight reel.

The great mistake made by most of the Lord’s people is in hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone.”2

The serpent gets nervous when we start challenging the doubts, dysfunctions, and insecurities his questions have propagated in our lives.

at the core of every temptation we will face, we’re ultimately being tempted to question in our hearts, and then contradict with our actions, our true identity as God’s children.

his objective is to mess with your head until you have forgotten who you are.

When your perspective is preloaded with the Word of God, lies lose their power over your life.

If God wants us to hear and know and obey His voice, why does He whisper?

The key is training your mind to know the difference between the Enemy’s threats and God’s whispers—and conditioning your heart to respond accordingly.

The Enemy’s lies are often powered by truth.

The thing is, you can’t un-sin. You can only repent.

He deals with us, not according to what our sins deserve, but according to what His love decided—on the cross.

The great mistake made by most of the Lord’s people is in hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone.

A believer who is equally convinced of these two realities—sin is serious, but Christ is enough—is the Enemy’s worst nightmare.

The problem comes when we go beyond confessing our sin (which means agreeing with God about it) and begin defining ourselves according to the sin.

Our sin is our personal responsibility, but in Christ it is no longer the center of our identity.

When we allow our thoughts to go unchecked, a steady drip of lies cements the wrong patterns within our minds, building a Berlin Wall of bad beliefs.

Whatever the what-if is, as quickly as I can, I must assess the nature of the fear. What, specifically, am I so afraid of?

Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.

What are you forfeiting in your life—right now—because of the force of fear pushing against your faith? Because you’re listening to the wrong voice?

What do you do when your greatest accomplishments lead you straight down the path of an even greater fear?

Because fear often finds its power, not in our actual situation, but in what we tell ourselves about our situation.

When you realize that God is the only One who really has any lasting reward to give, He becomes the only One whose approval you desperately need.

You don’t have to sing a single note to get God—or anyone else—to notice you.

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1) The

God is your very present help in times of trouble, and each one of your days has been ordained.5

But we must develop the habit of separating our sense of worth from our appraisal of our behavior.

you either kick fear out of your heart or it will keep you out of the places God has prepared for you.

God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

If you are a believer who hopes to accomplish the will of God for your life—and go to the next level spiritually—you have to defy the inertia of internal discouragement to get there.

In the yard my actions didn’t reflect God’s love. But they didn’t weaken it or make it go away, either. Because it’s not a love based on what I do. It’s a love based on what Jesus has done.

How are you defining the truth of who you are? By whose standards? What subtle lies has the serpent been weaving into your understanding of God’s intentions for you? How have they been corrupting your identity? What is that corruption costing you? Peace? Joy? The ability to connect with others who need you to be there for them? The ability to hear from God about His direction for your life?

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Enemy can’t do a thing to diminish God’s promises—that ability is decidedly beyond the limits of his power. So instead he lures you into places where your perspective of God’s promises will be diminished.

I hear the things God has spoken about me, and I want so badly to believe them. I want to believe that I’m filled with the Spirit, as He says I am. But if I’m filled with the Spirit, why am I so often led by my selfishness? Why are my motives constantly compromised by socially acceptable expressions of envy and subtle manifestations of greed? If what God says about me is right, why can’t I live the way I claim to believe?

The point is, regardless of our particular variety of temptation and condemnation, the Enemy wants to magnify our failures to the millionth power with his exaggerations so he can pervert the power of the Spirit’s conviction.

the nature of your calling does not indicate the level of God’s approval of you. And the fact that others have gifts and opportunities you don’t have doesn’t diminish the intensity of God’s intentionality about the things He created you to do.

The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist. —STEVEN PRESSFIELD, THE WAR OF ART

But mark this: the nature of your calling does not indicate the level of God’s approval of you. And the fact that others have gifts and opportunities you don’t have doesn’t diminish the intensity of God’s intentionality about the things He created you to do.

That’s why Jesus could say about Peter, “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it,” only to directly correct and confront Peter just verses later: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:18, 23)

How many cycles of predictable yet completely avoidable defeat will we have to face before we get serious about replacing our faulty understandings with a foundation of God’s favor? When we neglect this process—out of ignorance or out of habit or because it’s easier to live in the predictability of slavery than the responsibility of true freedom—we sabotage ourselves.

But this is the starting point, or—more likely—the starting-over point. You can’t go any further until you realize that the worth of your activity for Christ cannot rise above your understanding of your identity in Him. And there is unlimited power in the Word of God. Power to overcome the warped ways we see ourselves. And power to reassemble the image of God that we haven’t always reflected but have already received.

The problem comes when we go beyond confessing our sin (which means agreeing with God about it) and begin defining ourselves according to the sin. In this way we allow our lives to be defined by what we did rather than anticipating our tomorrows according to what Christ has done. We allow the Enemy to rob us of the value of grace’s great exchange, which is the central proposition of Christianity. We stop learning from our mistakes under the tutelage of the Spirit. And we start accepting labels created by the lies of condemnation.

What do you do when your greatest accomplishments lead you straight down the path of an even greater fear? Instead of summoning his faith and standing firm to see the deliverance of his God, Elijah retreats. And in his escape from his geographical surroundings, he begins to back down from the boldness that has characterized his whole ministry up to this point. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. (1 Kings 19:3–5) Now I’m confused. Verse 3 says he was running for his life. Yet verse 4 says he asked God to kill him. Which one is it? Are you looking for life support, Elijah? Or shall God send the angels of euthanasia? One of these things is not like the other. The more I studied this text, though, and considered the context of Elijah’s despair and compared it to similar feelings I’ve experienced under much less duress, the more I got it. Although the text says Elijah ran for his life—and I’m sure that’s how it appeared—it seems like something deeper is going on. In fact, I’m not sure Elijah was running for his life at all, at least not in the sense we would use that phrase. I believe Elijah was actually running from his life. You see, it had been a long, lonely three years for Elijah. Did he survive the drought? Undoubtedly. And through him God won the battle with a unanimous decision. But winning can be as exhausting as losing. Sometimes the pressure of success can drain you at an even deeper level than the frustration of failure. Elijah knows Queen Jezebel doesn’t have the power to call on her gods and end his life. If she had, he’d have been buried beside his bull back on the mountain. So it’s safe to assume that his greatest fear at this point isn’t dying. His greatest fear is living—and having to fight yet another agonizing battle. Jezebel’s threat is ultimately impotent, yes. But that doesn’t make it ineffective. Because fear often finds its power, not in our actual situation, but in what we tell ourselves about our situation.

By contrast, condemnation will never call you to come into God’s presence. It will convince you that you have nowhere to go because of where you’ve been. One of my friends told me that the most prominent feature of depression is the unremitting belief that things will never get any better than they are right now. In the same way, one of the most prominent features of condemnation is the unshakable sensation that I’ll never change from who I am right now. I’ve always struggled with this; therefore, I’ll never conquer it. Condemnation is the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. He wrongly believes—and wants to make you believe—that because you went to the pigpen, the pigpen should be your permanent mailing address. But it’s not his house we’re returning to or his rules we’re abiding by. The Father makes a different proclamation: This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. (Luke 15:24, emphasis added) Now that’s more like it. The past is buried (he was dead); the present is resurrected (he is alive). That’s the way the Father speaks. He understands the correct usage of tenses. What was does not determine what will be, because God is in every moment, redeeming it for His glory. And it gets even better than that. Not only does the Spirit set us free from chains that have bound us to our past, but He actually unleashes the Father’s vision of our future into our present reality. That

Confession 1: God says I am. Overpowering the lies of the Enemy in your insecurities Confession 2: God says He will. Overpowering the lies of the Enemy in your fears Confession 3: God says He has. Overpowering the lies of the Enemy in your condemnation Confession 4: God says I can. Overpowering the lies of the Enemy in your discouragement

In other words, you either kick fear out of your heart or it will keep you out of the places God has prepared for you.

Is it possible that when we’re not getting the affirmation or confirmation we desire, it’s because God doesn’t want our faith to rest in affirmation we can feel? In these times could it be that He’s at work on a deeper level, teaching us to rely on His character rather than our performance?

No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,”              declares the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17) Of

We comfort ourselves by insisting that, while our lives might not be very fruitful, at least we’re being faithful. The fact is, we’ve become more fearful than we realize, and it’s costing us more than we may ever understand. This is not God’s idea of faithfulness. Now,

My soul sometimes feels like a Twitter feed where I’m following a million of the most annoying people ever, and I can’t find the Unfollow button.

Most people go through life thinking God never speaks to them when in fact He’s always speaking. To everyone. Always directing. Sometimes warning. Sometimes affirming. But we hear so little of what He says because our consciousness of His voice is obscured by our mental static.

In which we overpower the lies of insecurity with the truth God says I am.

Whatever the reason, I have a strong conviction in parenting to teach my kids that mistakes are inevitable but disrespect is inexcusable. And ingratitude is more than a misdemeanor.

logorrhea 1. pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech. 2. incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility. The best part about our new word? It’s pronounced law-guh-REE-uh. I’ll let you make your own “sounds like” association. Seriously, could there be a more fitting term to describe the way the chatterbox spews lies and garbage in our minds? It’s a voice that drones on and on, always intimidating, always insinuating. The chatterbox wants to inundate us with logorrhea. To wear us out until we don’t want to try or until we have no idea what to do or how to answer our growing list of doubts and deficiencies. And it’s not just what this chatter says that makes it dangerous. It’s what it keeps us from hearing. Most people go through life thinking God never speaks to them when in fact He’s always speaking. To everyone. Always directing. Sometimes warning. Sometimes affirming. But we hear so little of what He says because our consciousness of His voice is obscured by our mental static.

The gospel, however, says that those who do not forget the past are condemned to repeat it. By looking to the Lord and beholding His love for us, we not only remember His benefits, mercies, and provision. We are also enabled to forget our shame, our sin, and our shortcomings.