Enough: Silencing Lies That Steal Your ConfidenceSample

Reject the Lies

Many of the lies that rumble and tumble about in our minds have been there for a long time. We might not even know when or how they started. These pervasive and persistent thoughts can become what are called “strongholds.” The Greek word for stronghold is echo, meaning, “to hold fast.” It looks like our English word echo, and has a similar connotation: to echo again and again in someone’s mind. 

A derivation of that same word, echuroma, means “a stronghold, fortification, fortress.” A stronghold is a thought pattern that forms a fortress around the mind, holding it prisoner to faulty thinking. It’s formed brick by brick with repetitive faulty thinking or all at once by a one-time traumatic event, such as a rape, molestation, or abuse. 

These thought patterns have the potential to grab hold of a mind and rule a life. Many strongholds are built for protection, but inevitably become prisons. 

In the Old Testament, a stronghold was a fortified dwelling used for protection from an enemy (1 Samuel 22:4; 23:14). In the New Testament Paul uses the Old Testament imagery of a fortress to describe a structure that keeps the Enemy in rather than a structure that keeps an enemy out. An ungodly habit or habitual way of thinking can become a habitation for the Enemy. 

When we talk about strongholds, we’re not talking about random thoughts or occasional sins. A stronghold is a thought pattern or habitual sin. It’s a fortress built with the bricks of thoughts and held together by the mortar of emotions. Strongholds become our perception of reality.

A stronghold might be a thought such as:

I’m no good.

Nobody loves me.

I can’t do anything right.

The Enemy locks you up in hopes you’ll never reach for the key within your reach—only a belief away. But the Bible says, “We have divine power to demolish strongholds.” The word demolish implies a kind of destruction requiring tremendous power—divine power. We cannot destroy strongholds with our own strength, even on our best days. The Holy Spirit can destroy strongholds with His power even on our worst days. It begins with recognizing the lie, and then declaring, “That’s not true.”