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TRUTH TOOLS

Climb Out of the Pit of an Unmet Longing

God's love is deep enough to embrace you in the deepest pit.

The tools on this page are from the appendix of my book, Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance. Listeners of the audiobook (and all visitors to this website) can access the same action steps found in the hardcopy right here. Your call to action is based on a strategy rooted in both the Old and New Testaments. According to 2 Corinthians 4:13, “It is written [in Psalm 116:10]: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak” (NIV).

Your longing to belong will be satisfied when you:
1. Believe the truth spelled out in Psalm 139.
2. Speak affirmations of truth from Psalm 139.

Download a PDF for FREE of the Appendix of Longing to Belong.
PDF also contains Contents, Acknowledgements, and Notes.

Journaling Instructions

Five words—look, list, learn, listen, and live—guide the method I use to tune my ears to the right frequency to hear from God. I modeled this five-step formula for meditating on Scriptures after a method I learned from Anne Graham Lotz. I’m convinced that journaling in this way turns up the volume of God’s still, small voice. Here’s how to begin:

  1. Purchase either a spiral bound notebook or a hardbound composition book (college-ruled).
  2. Download and print the Five-Step Formula (“My Journal of Psalm 139”), and paste it onto the first page of your journal, opposite the inside of the cover.
  3. Turn the page so that you have blank pages on the left and right. You will complete your journaling activities on two-page spreads.
  4. High in the top margin of the left-hand page, write LOOK, and record the verses you are about to study (for example, “LOOK: Psalm 139:1–4”).
  5. Divide the left-hand page into two columns. Label them in the top margin by writing LIST in the left column and LEARN in the right column.
  6. In the same way, divide the right-hand page into two columns. Label the left column LISTEN and the right column LIVE.
  7. Use the columns to write your responses to the remaining four steps in the formula.

Prayer of Forgiveness

To begin this activity, ask God whom you need to forgive and the specific offenses you need to forgive them for. As they come to mind, speak this prayer aloud:

Dear God,
I know you command me to forgive (Colossians 3:13b). I understand I must forgive others in order for you to forgive me (Matthew 6:15).

I know you help me obey your commands (Philippians 2:13), and I trust you will help me to forgive. I believe your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. (Psalm 139:10).

Although I can’t see your eyes, ears, or mouth, I know you can see, hear, and speak to me. I believe you saw me when this happened to me. I believe you hear me now. Therefore, you know that I don’t want to hold onto this offense any longer.

I choose to forgive [name the offender] for [name the specific offense].

I acknowledge that his/her sins and the results of his/her actions affected my life and made me feel [list negative emotions experienced].

I now release [name the offender] and the sins he/she committed against me to you, the only righteous judge.

In Jesus’s name, I renounce all influences of evil that came through the sins committed against me and through harboring unforgiveness in my heart. Restore me to wholeness and cancel the effects of the sins committed against me. Heal my memories of these past events so that when I think about what happened, I won’t experience overwhelming negative feelings toward [name the offender].

Thank You, God, for helping me forgive, for healing me from the pain, and for setting me free. Amen.

Download and print the Prayer of Forgiveness.

Who I AM Is and Who I Am

This activity is designed to help you:

  • Magnify your knowledge of the character of God
  • Expand your comprehension of what God says about you
  • Equip yourself to disallow anyone apart from God to define you
  • Claim your rightful place of belonging as a beloved child of God
  • Memorize and recite verses that lead you into the joy of acceptance

Creating Your Worksheet

  1. I consider this activity another journaling assignment, so I recommend finding some blank pages in your journal.
  2. Identify Bible verses that contradict what you currently believe about yourself and/or God. Please visit Who I Am for assistance finding these verses.
  3. Choose a verse that will help you believe and speak truth, and write it in your journal. Directly beneath the verse, write a brief statement acknowledging the lies you believed and explaining why you no longer believe them.
  4. Memorize the verse so you can recite it when needed to counter any lies you’re tempted to believe.
  5. Repeat steps 3–4 with as many different verses as you need.

Sample Worksheet

What I Thought versus What I Know

This activity is designed to help you:

  • Call out negative thinking patterns.
  • Expose lies you have believed about yourself.
  • Equip you with divinely powered weapons from Scripture.
  • Cancel the negative effects of lies by believing and speaking truth.
  • Bring your feelings about yourself into alignment with how God feels about you.

Creating Your Worksheet

  1. This is another great exercise to do in your journal. Find a page and divide it into two columns. The left column should take up only 25 percent of the page. Make the right column three times the size.
  2. Label the left column “What I Thought (Lies).” Label the right column, “What I Know (Truth).”
  3. In the left column, write down negative things that you think or say about yourself.
  4. Identify Bible verses that affirm your value, and in the right-hand column, write them alongside the related self-destructive statements. Please visit Who I Am for assistance finding these verses.
  5. Scripture has divine power to demolish strongholds. When you find yourself believing the lies listed on the left, declare the verses written beside those wrong beliefs. This practice helps you take your thoughts captive.

Sample Worksheet

This 15-question quiz will help determine the strength (or weakness) of your boundaries. Your score serves as a signpost on the path to a more purposeful, more powerful you.

Accessing the quiz adds you to my email list, keeping you informed of how I can help you start living the dream.

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