What Do You Believe?

According to Scripture, all lies are egregious and are most damaging for those who believe them. Consider the first lie ever recorded. For starters, in the book of Genesis the serpent said to Eve: “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of the fruit your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” From that moment forward, humankind had to face the downward spiral of sin and death. When these words were spoken, Adam and Eve were situated in a perfect world but even in a perfect world, if the enemy can isolate us, he can influence us. He can make us believe everything God has declared is false. He can trick us into seeing something the way it was never intended to be seen. He can deceive us into developing our disappointments into destructive choices. He can seduce us with sin and shame. He can infiltrate the purest of thoughts and prayers. He can slip in slight whispers to reinforce our weaknesses and inadequacies. He can separate us from peace and push us toward pain.

Oh, he IS a liar!

John 8:44 says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abides not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of lies.” We’re talking about the enemy, y’all. The evil one. And there’s no sense in us acting like he doesn’t exist. We believe there’s a God - a good, good father who loves us unimaginably so. Then we’ve got to acknowledge there’s an enemy who in no way is as powerful as God, but has nothing else on his agenda but to kill, steal and destroy. And his best tactic is to flood you and overwhelm you with the weapon of a lie.

What consumes us, controls us. The enemy wants our hearts to be consumed with lingering thoughts of disappointment and unmet expectations because when that happens we accept darkness, doubt and defeat. You want to be free from the lies that have held you back, rearranged your path, prompted you to settle, paused the healing of your heart, interrupted the wholeness of your life and sidetracked your destiny. No, you cannot let lies keep you from experiencing the excellence of God’s promises. But it cannot happen until you get honest with yourself. You have to say enough is enough. You have to move away from the woe-is-me, it’ll always be this way, pity party you keep hanging out at. You have to divorce the bad ideas and language that has been deposited into you by others even if they are loved ones. To be deceived by someone else is painful but to deceive yourself is likened to a vice.

There are many lies we might tell ourselves but the biggest one is that I’m not good enough. Whenever you think you are less than in comparison to someone else, it means you believe something is wrong about you. Whether it's your looks, height, weight, wealth, career, personality, upbringing, family history, education level, career status - anytime we think any of those things are not up to par with someone’s else standards or we’ve been judged and scrutinized because it - that’s when the lie starts to take root.

And it goes right back to Eve and the serpent - the deception that she was not enough. That in her most perfect state, she still didn’t measure up and needed something that she did not have. That seed of deceit stirred up doubt and insecurity to challenge what God had already empowered within her. At that moment, she didn’t know what to believe. The deception was self-imposed since both Eve and Adam accepted the lie of the serpent even after being anchored in God’s truth. And just like them, we deceive ourselves when we already have what we need in order to believe God yet choose to believe a lie instead.

Answer these questions and reflect on your answers:

What have your words been revealing about the lies you have believed?

Did someone plant a seed of deceit in your mind and somehow you just kept watering it?

Affirm and declare these statements:

I forgive those who lied to me or about me.

I forgive myself for lying to or on others.

I forgive myself for lying to me or about me.

Pray in petition to God to pursue His will and way.