When I was young my dad gave me a small, rusty key. He told me that a leprechaun gave it to him in the woods, and that it opened a very special treasure chest. Thinking back now, that key was probably something he found on the ground or for a few coins at a garage sale, but I believed that it was special. I held on to that idea and remember it to this day because for the longest time I believed that leprechauns were real because of that story. Not all lies are so sweet, but they have a way of clinging to us. Lies have a way of taking ahold of our minds and telling us that we should see the world their way. I wish the only lies that I believed were the cute white lies that parents tell their kids with a twinkle in their eye. I wish that I could say that I don’t believe the lies being spoken into my ear every day from so many sources detrimental to my soul.
Here are three lies that I have been believing, and the truth I now know.
I have to be good enough. I have believed and constantly run after the lie that I have to live up to some standard that the world sets for me. Whether it’s a higher GPA, a better salary, or even more likes on instagram, I have believed the lie that somehow my worth is based on something I do or don’t do or have. I have bought into this idea that if I am not feeling great or clearing every hurdle that seems to come in front of me that it is a reflection on who I am as a person. What I know to be true in spite of these thoughts and feelings is that my worth is not variable but fixed, and it is fixed to the cross of Christ. I know that God knows me so much more deeply than what I look to for my worth. I know that Psalm 139 tells me that He formed me in my mother’s womb and knows my every wandering. When my God looks at me he doesn’t see my many failures, he doesn’t see the broken mess that I am most, if not all of the time. No, he sees the righteousness of Christ that can not be taken away from me, and so I can have confidence to use the freedom I’ve been given.
My sins make me far from Him. I have been believing the lie that my sin takes me away from God, and that I cannot go to him when I am so messed up. While it is true for the non-believer that Sin has separated us from God, the truth of the Gospel is that Christ has bridged that gap for those who put their faith in Him. So although my sins grieve the Holy Spirt which dwells within me, and need to be put to death with my old self, they cannot take me away from the presence of the living God. Paul assures us of this in Romans 8:38-39 that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Because of this I can have full confidence that I can go to God even at my lowest point, and know that he will hear me.
Prayer isn’t a big deal. I have fallen into the pattern of going about my business without making prayer a priority in my day to day life, and have been believing that the small things aren’t worth taking the time to pray about. I have thought that I am too busy to talk to a God who is with me always, or that I already know how certain things will go in my day, so they aren’t worth praying about. I now see that these are lies that have been fed to me by the evil one. Prayer is a gift and a command. Prayer is the act of entering into the presence of and conversing with a living and omnipotent God. I am not worthy of something so high, I am not worth to be able to go to him, yet he invites me into his presence and tells me that I may ask and receive, seek and find, knock and be answered. The ancient Israelites trembled at the thought of this kind of interaction, yet we see that Moses spoke with God like a friend. We should not take this lightly, and not treat it as some burden but as a treasured gift. In Philippians 4:6 we are told to go to God with everything in prayer and supplication, and that he will provide. The truth is I should be praying literally all the time, and I can be confident that I will be answered.
Don’t believe the lies that are bearing down on you, they aren’t worth carrying. Know that the devil, the father of lies, is prowling, looking to attack and devour you, so be on guard. Christ said in John 8 “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Jesus has offered freedom from lies, and whom christ sets free is free indeed, so use that freedom and have confidence as a believer.
Mountains and Valleys 