Jen Smidt » God Scripture Family Gospel Counseling

"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!" - Romans 1:25

I believed it for years. The dark, insidious fumes of the lie tainted every word I spoke and move I made. The words contradicted what I had heard in church to be true but they gripped my heart with vice-like strength.

I am dirty. My sin is too much for God.

 

Women are affected differently by lies

Believing lies is a universal problem. Men and women alike are susceptible. In a great little book written to women, author Todd Wilson points out that men will, most likely, not be affected by lies in the same way women are. Women often believe lies that leave us wallowing in the mire of condemnation and the muck of not measuring up. Men tend towards lies that are inflated with distorted self-perception on the other end of the spectrum. They tend to think they are better off than they really are!

 

Truths about lies

I want to hone in on the females for the purpose of this post: Ladies, we are too often lured by lies. Wilson states 6 very simple yet helpful statements about lies that I find myself mulling over:

1.  Lies are not the truth. Yeah, thanks for that. Could there be a more obvious statement? And yet, we are daily thrust into situations where we choose to believe something untrue about God or ourselves. It takes a discerning heart tuned to the Holy Spirit to differentiate the subtleties of some lies.
2. Satan is behind every lie. Every single one. He is called the father of lies (John 8:44). He breeds discord and doubt. God is pure and cannot associate with anything untrue. Sometimes his truth is difficult, but it is always consistent with his character and actions.
3. Women are prone to believing lies. Our mother Eve left a lasting legacy in the lie department. She believed the lie that God might not have her back, that he may be holding out on her. She was led astray by her deceived heart. We must be especially vigilant to guard the truth God has sealed for us – we are precious, loved, and clean.
4. If believed, lies become truth to the one who believes them. The more time I spent focused on the filth of my sin and the pain of other’s sin against me, the farther from God I believed I was. As long as the attention was on me and my sin, I became too much for God. My truth; not his. The more often we hear a lie, the truer it becomes to us. The more often we hear the sweetness of the gospel, the more precious and treasured it becomes to us.
5. Life is about what you believe. We live out of our deepest beliefs. Until I repented of my unbelief in the power of God to forgive and redeem, my life was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Believing I was unloveable led to rebellious living. Trusting in the righteousness of Christ leads to righteous living.
6. Lies leave the believer feeling defeated. This is where the enemy is especially crafty. He will take a shade of truth and couple it with enough shame and guilt to make the untrue part of the statement overwhelm reality. It is true we were all dirty – defiled by our sin and others’. It is also true that Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for that sin, covering it finally and completely. The ultimate defeat happened when Christ overcame sin by living a perfect life and death by rising.

 

Reject the comfort of a lie for freedom in Christ

There is an allure to lies that tempts our hearts to grab hold. We may find comfort, belonging, familiarity in the façade of falsehood. Jesus frees us from the shackles of slavery to freedom and truth. For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. - Galatians 5:1

 

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