There is one voice I hear more clearly than all the others. While I would love to claim that it is God's voice, that simply is not true. Whether it be in a conversation with another, my inner monologue, or a vocalized soliloquy — it is my own whispers, shouts, and musings that speak most often into my life, and I have learned the brilliant words and ideas that bubble up out of my deepest thoughts are not always to be trusted.
I deceive myself on a daily basis, and I often don’t realize it until I’m left in the consequences of my choices. To combat this tendency, I must identify the lies I am telling myself. If you’re like me, here are 6 lies you might believe without realizing it, and the truth God wants us to know about each.
1. Being Comfortable Equals Comfort
Work. Managing a household. Life. It can all make a soul weary. Self-care is important, but we often settle for being comfortable, rather than seeking God’s comfort. When we do this, we begin to circumvent the true purpose of rest by settling for being pacified. Life feels heavy, so we escape into the status updates of others, play online matching or popping games, and binge on our latest favorite show instead of spending time with our Savior. Then as we rest our head on our pillow at night the mind awakens and the heart still aches, because "I'll get to it later" never came to be.
The tech boom has brought about a new form of the old truth in Romans 1:25: they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worship and serve created things rather than the Creator. The Creator is the only one who can actually deliver soul-satisfying comfort. Being comfortable is never as good as the presence of the One who is able to comfort my heart in all seasons of life. True self-care equals resting in His care.
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2. The Devil Knows My Thoughts and Can Use Them Against Me
For the longest time, I thought that Satan could read my mind. I was rebuking him at every turn, fully convinced that my thoughts were betraying me, revealing the depravity of my heart to the greatest enemy any soul has ever known. Now, God can discern my thoughts from afar (Psalm 139:2), but Satan is a fallen angel, part of creation, not equal to God, and waiting for his ultimate defeat. Let's not be naïve: Satan is very smart, and crafty—he is bent on destroying that which God loves, and has had thousands of years to study the frail and fleshy propensities of humanity, luring them into temptation time and time again. We must be aware that we are currently living behind enemy lines, and we should be ready to stand our ground. The devil is not to be underestimated, but let's not give him too much credit; HE IS NOT GOD!
This makes one thing abundantly clear: if we are constantly looking for Satan, we've taken our eyes off Christ.
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3. God Will Give Me What I Want if I Find Contentment with What I Have
Is contentment really contentment if we seek it as a means to an end? Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." But He also shapes our desires to be more like His, and delight can't be faked simply to get what we want.
We cannot manipulate God, no matter how hard we try. That doesn't always keep us from trying, but the pursuit is a fool's game. We unintentionally begin to believe if we stack the deck just right, we can get God to give us what we want. We forget that He loves us enough to not grant our every desire — while still being the God who offers us blessings far beyond what we deserve. Seek Him for Himself, not as your wish-fulfiller.He is better, more sustaining, and more faithful than any worldly want.
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4. I Refuse to Hope and Pray For the Desires of My Heart
Proverbs 13:12 tells us, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." Some days we so want to prevent feeling the heartsickness that we will sacrifice desiring anything. While we should keep ourselves from unrealistic expectations, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have any. The biggest indicator of hopelessness in my own life is that I stop praying for the dreams hidden in my heart. We must never forget that our God places boundaries on the oceans and knows the stars by name. He surely can do more than we imagine. We can risk asking Him, for it is He who anchors a hope unchangeable.
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5. I Sell Myself the Value of Sin
In my mind, sin personified looks like a suave but sleazy car salesman, who approaches with believable lies of why a deluxe lemon will take me to new heights and give me the life I have always wanted (when in reality the brake line is faulty and will send me speeding to my death). James 1:14-15 reminds us not to fall for the sales pitch of sin, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." Whatever promise or purpose we try to convince ourselves indulging in a sin will bring, whether mega-sized or miniscule, biblically it is clear that the pleasure will be fleeting and we are bound to crash.
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6. I Believe the Story is about Me
The story of life is framed with beginnings, ends, struggles, and triumphs. It weaves through plot lines of challenge and victory. The larger tale is a story with origins outside of time, and we have been invited to be a part of it. However, instead of being grateful for the role we have as God's workmanship made for good works (Ephesians 2:10), we try to hijack the story and make it about us. It is God who is both Author and Hero of this story, but that doesn't keep us from trying to be. Daily I attempt to whisper lines to God from offstage about what should happen next, or feel myself stepping on to center stage to herald my own story instead of His. I reach for control over trust. I place myself above God, and try to make Him fit into my life instead laying mine down for Him. This is the biggest deception of all. The one big story, the Bible, my life, none of it is about me; it is and always will be, about Him.
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Chara Donahue is a freelance writer who is working on her first book. She enjoys doing biblical counseling, speaking to women, and savoring coffee when her four kids are out playing with dad. She holds an MSEd from Corban University, is passionate about seeing people set free through God's truths, and is the founder and editor of Anchored Voices. Get in touch with her on Facebook or Twitter.
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Originally published Monday, 31 July 2017.
