TRY THIS AT HOME - by Todd Benjamin Lout

Last Saturday night Karena had us participate in an exercise that was really effective. It's something we've done in our youth ministry from time to time over the years and has always been a healing time. She had us take some minutes to allow words or phrases to come up that have been spoken over us that tagged us in a negative way.  These words could be years ago or just yesterday.  Maybe it was a school teacher who labeled you wrong. Maybe a kid on the playground who called you names that cut deep. It could even be someone close to you now who has misjudged you. Or it could even be you, yourself, who has labeled you the wrong way.)  We were to write these things down on paper and hand them over to Jesus as we trust Him to dow away with that label and tell you His replacement.   On Saturday we put these papers in a box with a cross on it.  In youth ministry we would throw these directly into a fire pit.  Karena actually took these negative declarations out of the box this last week and burned them to smithereens! (You can see the photo of this in the above banner in this article.) I was thinking of how this is something that everyone should try at home...and maybe multiple times, if needed, just as a reminder.   In Isaiah 62:4 & 5 God' people are told, "No longer will you be called forsaken or your land desolate. I will call you Hephziba and your land Beulah, for God delights in you (Hephzibah) and your land will be whole (Beulah). We see in the Bible that God changed people's names often, shifting them from baron to fruitful, from Abrim to Abraham (father of many) and so on. The Word also tells us that God has our names tattooed on His hand. (Isiah 49:16)  If that's the case, do we really believe He would have negative declarations on His own hand? No way!  He would have our names as He calls us, which are His own.   Try taking the action of this faith step and doing away with what wrongly spoken over you.  Heck, write it on a piece of toilet paper and flush it down the toilet if you have to! (that's actually not a bad idea) Love, Todd