Social Myths Or Spiritual Truths - Trust Fall SeriesSample

Cleverly contrived myths debunked

We need to challenge every cleverly contrived myth our culture sends our way. In the Scriptures, we can find the eternal wisdom of God that defuses the enemy’s lies. Here are some examples of cleverly contrived myths our culture swears by, each with its corresponding counter-truths rooted in God’s Word.

Myth: Our worth is external. Women can feel the pressure to look beautiful and dress sexy to get attention they feel that they need. Men can feel their significance being tied to money or accomplishments.

The truth: You have an eternal identity in Christ; your worth is eternal, not external. (2 Corinthians 4:16) It doesn’t matter what you look like, act like, how much you have won or lost, what matters is that your identity is in Christ.

Myth: Happiness is our ultimate goal, and it justifies anything. “I am not happy in my marriage, so I am going to get a divorce. I am not happy with the way I was created, so I am going to get surgery. I am going to do whatever it takes to make me happy.”

The truth: God is more after your holiness than after your happiness. (Romans 6:11, Romans 8:1, Hebrews 12:10) We can have true joy in the midst of suffering. Some of the most significant challenges in our lives mold us to be the people that God wants us to be. We grow in the hard times. Can we be happy? Sure. But is happiness our ultimate goal?

Myth: We can break natural, Scriptural, and financial laws and everything will be ok. This myth says we can break all kinds of laws so that we will prosper. Do we believe that we can eat whatever we want and never get sick? That we can do whatever we want sexually and have no consequences? Or that we can get in all sorts of debt, but somehow somebody else will bail us out?

The truth: We can trust in the Creator and live by His principles. (Galatians 6:7-8)

Myth: We can rewrite history and redefine truth. This myth makes us believe we can re-legislate and re-vote on history, and that humans can declare what truth is. Like on those TV programs where they slip in a blatant conjecture as fact, “As we came from the monkeys, this happened and so…”

The truth: We should learn from the past and love the truth. (Jeremiah 6:16)

Myth: Everyone goes to heaven, and sincerity equals salvation. Some people think that as long as you are sincere in your faith, whatever that may be, then everything is fine and God will let you in.

The truth: The Scripture doesn’t say that everybody will go to heaven, nor that you don’t need to share your faith. We have to share the good news that Jesus has come, that He is alive, that He died on the cross to pay for our sins, and that it is our greatest joy to come to know Him. (1 John 5:11-12, Matthew 28:19-20)

Myth: It will never happen to me. “Everybody else will get cancer, have business problems and marital issues, but not me.”

The truth: It may happen, I hope it doesn’t, but God is still good. (John 16:33) If we believe the lie that God won’t let anything happen to us, then when something does we throw away our faith thinking, “How could God let that happen?” It has been happening to other people for ages, but when it happens to us our faith craters.

Myth: There is no longer “right or wrong,” nothing is moral or immoral, it’s just a personal decision.

When there are no absolutes anymore; everything is just a social construct, everything is up to you, and everybody wants everybody else out of their business and separated from each other, lest someone get offended.

The truth: God puts limits, rules, and other people in our lives for our good and joy. We will reap what we sow. (Proverbs 7:25-27)

Myth: Believing in yourself can replace believing in God. “All you need is high self-esteem. You can do it. You can do everything.”

The truth: Belief in God is what gives us correct and healthy self-esteem. You can’t do all things. You can’t make all the decisions. You can’t get everything right. Believing otherwise puts man on the throne and makes man into god. We praise ourselves, thinking belief in self is able to do anything, but there are a lot of things we will never be able to do. There are a few things that, in God’s power and purpose, we can do. This is not believing in ourselves, it is believing in God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and not the other way around. (John 15:5)

Have you spotted any cleverly contrived myth that has gotten into the way you think and live?

Peter tells us, “Don’t follow cleverly contrived myths.” No matter how good the presentation is, or how many people are doing it, let’s follow eternal truths.