I Can....I Am

Do you ever listen to what you say in your heart, to yourself? Have you noticed that throughout the day, you make statements about yourself?

Let me give you an example: “I am exhausted.” Saying this when you feel tired can make it so and bring your mind, heart, soul, and body into agreement with that statement. You give in to it, submit to it, and reinforce it. Yes, for many of us, this is a reality of our lives, with all its pressures, expectations, and demands, and yes, we can easily feel exhausted. But do we have to agree with that, or is there another option?

What you say to yourself determines what you become. Yes, that's right, it determines what you become. If you tell yourself when you make a mistake, “I'm useless, a failure, hopeless,” guess what? That's what you become.

Success starts in the heart and comes out in your words, and so does failure.

A successful businessman doesn't become successful by telling themselves things like “I will never make it, I will only fail, it will never work out”. And so it is in life, because what you say to yourself affects what you become.

Many of us say “I cannot…” (add something negative about yourself), and guess what? They do not fulfil their potential. Many of us say, “I am…” (add something negative about yourself), and guess what? That's who they become. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that you have spoken over yourself.

So how about listening to that negative self-talk, adjusting it slightly, and looking at it from a different perspective?

The Bible verse from Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me,” uses the word “do” in the original Greek, Ischyō, which means to have, to exercise, to force, be able, avail, can do, could, be good, might, prevail, be of strength, be whole, and much work. If we are truly in Christ, then we can Ischyō anything and be anything. There is no limitation except that which Christ puts on us in Him.

So, we owe it to ourselves and to God, as an act of worship, to stop limiting ourselves by saying “I cannot” and to stop identifying with what we are not. Start seeing yourself in Christ, able to do all things in Him, and start speaking those things over yourself. I can in Christ. I am in Christ. And see your life change and conform to what God says about you and to what He predestined you to become in Him.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. Romans 8:29-30