Lies We Believe

“Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. (1 Timothy 4:2 NLT)

What lies do you believe about yourself that are keeping you from being all the Lord desires you to become? Things like: “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not attractive enough” or “I don’t know enough” or “I’m not smart enough” or ______________ and you can fill in the blank.

Sin got it’s start in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve believed a lie. Satan, who can’t tell the truth and who is the “father of lies,” put doubt in the mind of Eve about the accuracy of what she heard God say. He is still doing that today.

One of Satan’s favorite tools to disarm us and cause us to doubt God and ourselves, is discouragement. He turns our minds and attention to ourselves rather than to God and His Word. Why do you think gossip is so appealing to so many? Largely because it turns the negative and difficult things we tend to believe about ourselves onto the frailties of others.

It’s much easier to see our shortcomings in someone else than to face them in ourselves. And why is it that we have so hard a time facing them in ourselves? Because Satan’s goal is to magnify our weaknesses and perceived shortcomings and minimize the power of God to help us change.

Lies are sometimes exaggerated truth. For example, weakness becomes an insurmountable barrier which renders us helpless in our own eyes. Lack of knowledge or experience become obstacles that magnify our inability to learn or do anything worthwhile in God’s Kingdom.

So, how do we deal with the lies that become so deeply rooted in how we see ourselves and who we come to believe we “really” are? The same way we make progress in any area of our life in Christ – faith! James MacDonald wrote: “Every good thing God wants to give to you comes through faith.” 

Jesus said in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.” When we’re discouraged, all we hear is the “you can do nothing” part. We tend to skip over the “will produce much fruit” part. What’s my point?

EVERYTHING, every detail of our growth and development in our walk with God, from start to finish, is by faith. To believe we can be or do anything in and of our own strength and ability is to rob God of His deserved glory and honor. Is that to say we just sit back and wait for Him to do everything? Of course not. We are His workmanship, His masterpiece of creation, and we can do ALL THINGS! But how? “Through Christ who is our strength!” (Philippians 4:13)

Kevin Elijah Burgess wrote: “Life is hard. God is good. Glory is coming.” When Satan begins to whisper lies that cause you to believe any version of “I’m not enough,” do the same thing Jesus did when He was being tempted in the wilderness – quote God’s Word! “Yeh, but I don’t know any Scripture to quote?”

THEN LEARN SOME! It’s inexcusable for a child of God not to read and memorize Scripture. In Ephesians 6 when Paul is outlining the “Armor of God,” the only offensive weapon we have is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Our primary weapon against the lies of Satan that would continually desire us to focus on ourselves and all we’re not or can’t do, is the nourishment of the words of God found only in His Word, the Bible.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊