The world sells you on the notion that somehow you can make yourself more lovable when the reality is that you are already loved by the way in which your Creator made you! People suffering from eating disorders have bought the lie that there is some shape or size they can attain that will help them feel better about themselves or feel like they can be loved. But God already sent His Son to die for us and there is no love greater.
There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15: 13-14 (NLT)
As if this was not enough, Amy Winehouse also suffered from self abuse, or cutting as it is known. During an interview with Spin Magazine, Winehouse stunned everyone when she took a shard from a broken mirror and began to carve "I love Blake" into her stomach. Cutting is a relatively new phenomenon where someone deliberately cuts themselves. As the age we live in rapidly approaches its end, we see the devil working overtime in creating new and more depraved ways for people to be miserable. Cutting to gain attention is just as much a lie from hell as "gender confusion" is. God doesn't make mistakes beloved. But the devil is feverishly trying to convince people that He made a mistake with them. We have confused our feelings with reality. What we feel is completely subjective compared to the objective reality of God. Because while our feelings often betray us, God never will.
Adding to the lies Amy Winehouse bought into, mental illness was also in the mix. Claiming to suffer from bipolar disorder, she often spoke about depression and how she drank as a means of self medication. According to the World Health Organization, depression affects 121 million people worldwide with over 850,000 suicides per year in the wake. The devil sells despair and we too easily buy into it. What the world sells is again in opposition to the promises of God:
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. Isaiah 43: 2 (NLT)
He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. Psalm 147: 3 (NLT)
But too often we buy into the lies the world sells. The victim mentality that convinces us there is nothing that can be done, that we are born a certain way; that a generational curse is forever. But God doesn't operate as we do. Our key verses today are a critical teaching from Proverbs. First of all, we must buy the truth. Instead of the lies the devil wants to sell us, we must only buy the truth:
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17: 17 (NIV)
