It’s amazing how much you put up with when you believe you have to. And I stress the word BELIEVE because that is what orders your steps. Let’s explore:

• If you believe you’ll never get that job, you won’t apply.
• If you believe he’ll never love you the way you want, you’ll settle for what you can get.
• If you believe you can’t fight back, you’ll keep taking abuse.
• If you believe you’re a grasshopper, you won’t stand for anything.
• If you believe you have no voice, you won’t speak up when it counts.

It matters what you believe about yourself, your circumstances, other people. The Bible says whatsoever a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7). You are what you believe; you do what you believe. Actions reflect faith. Change what you believe, change your life.

But change doesn’t just happen. You won’t wake up one day with a new way of thinking. No, you must seek a new truth. A truth that doesn’t make you a victim or prey; one that doesn’t make you cower in corners and shadows. A truth that doesn’t make you inferior to just about everything and everyone.

A New Truth

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Jesus said that (Matt. 10:16). A loaded statement, and if you’re not careful, you can misinterpret it. If you take it literally, then you’ll believe you are put in this world merely to take crap from people, to be weak, a victim.

But Jesus said as sheep. We are NOT sheep; we are people. What you can gather from being like sheep is in this world we are nonthreatening, not predators. We don’t need to step on others to get ahead. We don’t have to worry about how we’re going to take care of ourselves because we have a shepherd. Jesus is our good shepherd; He takes care of us. Wolves, on the other hand, attack and devour; they are hunters who prey on the weak. They are predators that must come through our Shepherd to get to us.

And just because we are nonthreatening and meek, doesn’t mean we are weak. Doesn’t mean people get to trample us underfoot. We are still bold as lions and wise as serpents. We are more than conquerors.

Does that sound like sheep? No, we are men and women — we are children of God: heads, not tails, above only, not beneath, lenders, not borrowers. We are a force to reckon with and we demand respect. That is the new truth that changes your life — if you dare to believe.

— D.L. Lunsford