Anyways, here are my top three:
3. Love yourself.
What's meant: People often think loving yourself is the key to allowing others to love you correctly. Its' used as if its the primary step before being able to love others; or the solution to not being so needy for others to love you.
What's true: In actuality, the bible says that we already love ourselves...too much, in fact. We are quite full of pride when it comes to ourselves (check out the number of selfies we take). And those who self-loathe are also full of self, in an unhealthy way. So when it boils down to it, we are lovers of self (2 Tim. 3:2) so it's already built in. Christ simply tells us to love others AS WE LOVE (care for) OURSELVES (Mark 12: 31) implying that the self part is already taken care of. This just leaves the focus of love to others.
I think people mean well, though because they're encouraging women to respect themselves enough to not allow anyone else to degrade or misuse you. However, that is still a task for our Maker. When we find out what He says about us, He washes us with His truth and it becomes our protection.
2. God helps those who help themselves.
What's meant: This can be heard when people are attempting to encourage others to quit waiting for God to cause something to happen. If we simply put our own plans into effect, God will eventually step in the process and bless it or give us what's needed to take it to the next level.
What's true: Let's start with the idea of salvation. At it's ground level, we are in dire need. Romans 5:6 is explicit by sayins "when we are utterly helpless...Christ came at just the right time and [helped us]". And to solidify that, a few verses later Paul adds, "while we were still [in need of help], Christ died for us...". This makes it clear that God was all about helping us when we were unable to help ourselves. This same principle is true when it comes to life in general. 2 Corinthians 12:9 "His strength is made perfect in our weakness..." is an assurance that God is willing to step in once we are willing to surrender our strength and admit our inability.
1. God won't put more on you than you can bear.
*Now I know you're not feeling me on this one. After all...THAT'S SCRIPTURE KIM!!! Right? Well if anything, its a popular Kirk Franklin song that just hits the spot at the right times in life. I know, I know...i'm guilty of jamming the song and allowing tears to flood my eyes. But when I thought about the character of God, I realized, that's not even like Him to hold back from us what we can bear. In my own life, I've felt at my wits end numerous times, and in those times I ran to Him for strength and He comforted me and lifted my head. He later showed me those times were intense for a purpose: my perfecting process!
What's meant: Like I once did, people often lean on this 'comforting' phrase when life gets too hard. They want so much to believe God won't press them too far.
What's true: The scripture we pull this from: 1 Corinthians 10:13 (in its natural context) is speaking ONLY about temptation. Read verses 6-14 for yourselves. God is saying that with His Spirit living within us, though temptations will rise, we have the strength to not indulge and He will even be faithful enough to show us a way out so we will not give in to it. He will keep it from becoming so strong that we that we can actually stand!
What we might want to say, instead is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8-12... "I feel troubled and oppressed in every way; I suffer so much embarrassments and i'm unable to find a way out; I feel pursued and persecuted...struck down to the ground even. But I am not crushed, nor driven to despair...I'm not deserted/alone nor am I ever destroyed! All of this i'm going through are opportunities for Christ to demonstrate his power and presence in and through me!" (paraphrased).
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