I recently made the decision to pursue a dream of mine, and that is to run an ultramarathon. I have no idea why this is a dream of mine. Growing up I played soccer and I was always the worst runner on the team, holding everyone back on running activities. 

But as I have grown older I am still drawn to running. I can’t seem to get away from it even though throughout the years it has seemed to be more of a form of torture than an enjoyable form of exercise. The longest distance I have ever ran is 10 miles and I do not have fond memories of that race. 

But something shifted for me a couple weeks ago. All of the sudden I had a thought that I had never had before. And that was….what if I can run an ultramarathon?

Years ago, before we had kids, my husband ran a marathon. I remember kissing him bye as I left for church and he left for his big race. He had been training for months. During the church service all I thought about that morning was, wow he has been running this whole time! After the service I went straight to the finish line to meet him at his accomplishment. It was amazing! His quads cramped up on him at mile 20 but he still just kept going. I was amazed at the fact that he had just run 26.2 miles. 

Deep down, I desired to do it too. But I never voiced it. I ignored the desire because my thoughts revolved around how bad of a runner I had always been and I had my mind made up. I could never run long distances. 

Years go by, and I find myself thinking back to his marathon often. Being so inspired and amazed that he did it. Still desiring to do it myself but not even willing to try because “I am a bad runner”.

So a couple weeks ago when I had the thought “what if I can run an ultramarathon?” I was shocked. My brain had never had a thought like that. And I honestly sat there, completely dumfounded at the possibility, and so excited I barely could contain myself. 

I have heard my whole life that our mind is powerful. That our words have power. That if you have the right mindset then you can accomplish anything. But I never realized just how powerful it was until I experienced this foreign thought in my mind. What if I can run an ultramarathon?

Almost at the same time I had this thought, I realized 2 other very powerful truths about myself. They were that I can do hard things and that I am a finisher. 

You see, the first thought of “what if I actually can run an ultramarathon?” then created an almost instant avalanche of truth in my mind. It exposed deep rooted lies that I had been telling myself for all my 38 years so far. The fact that I can’t do hard things and I do not finish things were in fact lies. But they were buried under other lies this whole time. 

These lies had held me back my whole life. They had suppressed me. They had me bound to this false identity that stopped me from being the woman that God designed me to be.

At this moment of truth revealing…. I felt free. It was definitely a God moment as we sometimes say. Out of nowhere, He dropped a thought into my mind that completely changed everything. He was revealing to me the truth of who He made me to be. He exposed the lies of the enemy and showed me the truth. 

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

And this exposing of the truth is just the beginning of what now has been such a deep revelation of not only who God has made His daughters to be, but also how He sees us and what He desires for us. 

God made our mind to be crazy powerful. Satan knows this. So a huge part of his tactic is to attack our minds. That’s why in scripture it tells us to put on the full armor of God, and all the different parts of the armor help block the arrows of the enemy coming at us…including the lies of who we are (Ephesians 6:10-18)

Ladies, you are a daughter of the Most High God. That is the foundation of your identity. And if that is the foundation of your identity, then you can do far more amazing things than you realize. 

So…what are the lies that you are believing about yourself? I know you are busy, but I beg you to take a minute and stop. Ask the Holy Spirit to come be with you and ask Him what lies are you believing? Just pause and listen. Seriously, do it. 

Now after a few minutes. Go write down what you heard. If you are unsure if it was Him, I just want you to write what came to your mind. What you ended up thinking about during that pause. 

And now, write the opposite. This opposite will be the truth about yourself. For example, one of my lies was that “I cannot do hard things” and the opposite (my truth!) was that I can do hard things. 

Now, I want you to sit in this. Let it sink in. Give God more time to speak with you. Open your heart to hearing from Him and be vulnerable to let these lies and truths be revealed.