As his child, I am held secure by the everlasting love, faithfulness, and protection of my Heavenly Father. I look to him to know how to live and relate with others.
So my reality is I am a child of God. This is who I am as a believer.
So why is it so easy to lose sight of this reality and fall back into old patterns of thinking and behaving?
What stops me from being who I am?
At least three factors conspire against my believing that reality:
The World
The world constantly bombards us with messages that run counter to God’s truth about us. The world screams at us who we supposedly are and/or who we should be to measure up. There is always something else I need to be or do to be good enough.
And the world drips, drips, drips the message that our security is found in things and in the opinions of other people. Sometimes, those messages don’t just drizzle down on us, they rain down with the force of a spring thunderstorm in Texas. And the flash flood of insecurity overwhelms us and drowns out the truth.
The Enemy
The Enemy actively works to deceive us from living out of our redeemed and empowered reality.
For those of you who were in Bible study with me many years ago, you might be surprised to see this on my list. I didn’t always believe the Devil existed. I didn’t buy the concept of spiritual warfare.
But the more I studied the Scripture, the more convinced I became.
- Jesus acknowledged the reality of Satan. (see for example John 8:42-47; Matthew 4:1-11)
- Paul urged believers to take the spiritual battle seriously and prepare accordingly (see Ephesians 6:10-18).
- Peter warned we must be alert because “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (see 1 Peter 5:8-11).
The context and the genre of the portions of Scripture which record how Jesus, Paul, and Peter (and others) thought of and related to Satan as a real being is not that of allegory or poetry. In fact, the context gives me no reason not take their words at face value.
It is important to note that Scripture recognizes Satan as a real, personal being, but never is there any question as to his being a created being.
He, like all creatures, was created to be in relationship with God, but he rebelled and actively opposes God.
Unlike in other religions which ascribe a dualism between equal, but opposing forces of good and evil, the biblical view is purely monotheistic and the sovereignty of God is never in question.
The Enemy seeks to deceive us into believing he isn’t real and thus poses no real threat. Couple that with his efforts to get us to doubt the reality of our identity as God’s children and you get a powerful combination intended to keep us on the sidelines.
If we won’t even acknowledge we are on a battlefield or that the Enemy exists, we aren’t going to be much of a threat to his efforts.
Myself
I am my own worst enemy sometimes. When I mess something up, the old scripts start playing automatically in my mind.
You’re such a failure.”
You’ll never get it right.”
You mess up everything.”
…and on and on it goes.
If I don’t counter those messages with God’s truth, I start believing and living out of a false reality.
There’s a line in the movie Pretty Woman that resonates so strongly with me. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it but I think it goes like this:
Richard Gere’s character asks Julia Robert’s character why she listened to and lived her life based on the negative things people said about her instead of believing the good things which he recognized as obviously true about her. She replies that the bad stuff is easier to believe.
Yep, it sure is!
Truth to Combat the Lies
The lies may be easier to believe but they aren’t the truth.
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I need my mind to be transformed (see Romans 12:2).
- I need to over-write the well ingrained negative self talk with some new scripts that speak truth to counter those lies I tell myself about who I am.
- And when the world’s river of lies threatens to jump the banks, I need some Scriptural levees and sandbags in place to prevent the surge from sweeping me away in its flood.
- When the Enemy whispers lies intended to limit my effectiveness as a believer, I must be armed with truth that keeps me actively following the voice of my Savior.
We must embed the truth in our minds so deeply that it transforms our mind and thus our living.
Pray for God to transform your mind as you put his truth in it and create new scripts over the old ones.
Allow God to speak his truth over and into you as you meditate on and repeat the Scriptures.
It isn’t the repetition of words that renews us, it is engaging with our Savior that equips us to really, deep down, believe we are who he says we are in Christ and then live like we believe it.
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