The Truth is Out There

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

How it Began

The phone rang. I don't know why I picked it up. I was only six. I wasn't allowed to answer the phone, but everyone was outside, and I knew--somehow I just knew-- my mom was on the other side of that phone. It would be her.

It was. My parents had been divorced for a year, and this was the first call I had gotten from her. I tucked into myself a little. Afraid of getting caught on the phone, I whispered. When my Dad walked around the corner and saw me there- little hands gripping the phone for dear life- he asked me who it was on the line. Then it happened. 

~ I lied. 

It was the first lie I ever remember telling. He knew it was a lie the minute it left my lips. It began a pattern that followed me the rest of my life. One I still fight today. 

Over the years I have lied about many things. Some big, some small. Some lies were told to stay out of trouble, while others were told to fit in. Some lies are by omission. Some were told just because, and some were told so many times that they became my "back story"... a part of my history. Ingrained into me as if they were the truth. 

Danger! 

Big lies or small, they are all dangerous. Pervasive like a black crawling death lies creep in and begin to choke the life out of you. They box us in and weigh us down. They pull at us, and create gut wrenching fear and anxiety. They are the problem, not the solution. 

Big or small though, there are some lies that are more dangerous than others. The lies we tell others are bad. "No, you look great in that dress" is not always the truth, but the lies that are more dangerous than anything are the lies we tell ourselves. 

Those lies leave us debilitated and crippled. Those lies leave us feeling inadequate and isolated. Those lies, if exposed, would be seen for the insidious things they are: harbingers of death, because they come from the enemy: the father of all lies. 

"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44 ESV

Peeling Back the Onion 

There are ten lies I have told myself for a long time. I have believed them. Somehow, someway, they were told to me once and I claimed them as my own. They have become ingrained and I must carve them out. Over the next five posts I am going to cover these lies. Perhaps you will identify with some of them. Perhaps you will share with me something that I have not covered. 

I am not doing this to point out I am better or worse than anyone else. I am simply being honest, sharing my struggles, so you can see that life is hard, even when you are a Christian. 

I do not know where this will go. I am not trying to create doctrine or teach on lying. I am just going to share the nitty-gritty and hope that I can begin to overcome these lies and find freedom in the truth. 

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" John 8:32

Join the Conversation

What is the first lie you can remember telling? 

How to Overcome Insecurities

Insecurities:

Everybody has at least one. Most people have more than one. 

In the Webster’s Dictionary Online insecure is defined as 

1: not confident or sure: uncertain; feeling somewhat insecure of his reception; 2: not adequately guarded or sustained: unsafe; an insecure investment; 3: not firmly fastened or fixed: shaky;the hinge is loose and insecure; 4 a: not highly stable or well-adjusted;an insecure marriage; b: deficient in assurance: beset by fear and anxiety; always felt insecure in a group of strangers. 

How do we turn uncertain, unsafe, and shaky into certain, safe, and steady? First we have to realize where insecurity comes from. 

Insecurity comes from believing a lie. 

We have all been there. We have believed we aren't smart enough to go back to college or good enough for that promotion. Whether you believe a lie your parents told you all your life “you are not good enough” or a lie you tell yourself “nothing ever seems to work out for me” lies have power only as long as you believe them. Once you stop giving them fuel to rule your life, you can see them for what they are: chains. Shake them off. Jesus freed us from our chains nearly 2000 years ago. 

Insecurity comes from lack of faith. 

The disciples were freaking out. A storm was tossing them around and there Jesus was, oblivious because he slept. They had no faith that God would protect them, keep them and bring them to the other side of the storm. Jesus was annoyed his nap was interrupted. Nevertheless he speaks to the storm and there was peace. He admonished his crew for their lack of faith. After all, Jesus was in the boat! 

Insecurity comes from lack of understanding who we are in Christ. 

You are God’s creation but more than that, at salvation you become a son or daughter. Adopted into a royal blood line, you now are joint heirs with Jesus, who sits next to God. When we were sinners, Christ died for us. When we are redeemed (bought back) by God He adds value to us that was not there before. We become more than we ever were. We become filled with Jesus. Now we can do all things because Christ gives us strength and value we did not have before. 

What’s next? 

Next we have to develop our Automatic Truth Response. When we are confronted with feelings of inadequacy, doubt, lack of faith, or lies (quietly spoken ones or the ones that shout in our heads) we have to respond with the truth – the word of God- so that we can deflect the enemies attack, and grow in the confidence God designed us to have in Him. 

You have a call of God on your life. You are important to God; in fact, you are his most prized possession. He owns the cattle on 1000 hills; he knows every star and calls them by name. He knows how many hairs you have on your head, and He cares for you. So much so, that he gave his only Son for you. Really, why do you doubt God’s love? 

Growing in Security 

God’s got this! Whatever “this” is. 

There is nothing too big for Him to handle. There is nothing too small for Him to care about. Since we are the thing He cares most about, He is active in our lives. He wants you to be active too; actively pursuing Him. 

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added.” Matthew 6:33

What things? Your everyday, human concerns: those things. What to eat, where to live, what job to take, what school to send your kid to… all of these things God knows you have need of, because He cares for you. 

When we trust that God has our best interests at heart, that He makes our paths straight then what do we have to fear? What do we have to doubt? Why would we shake or feel uncertain or unsafe when the storms come? 

We can be secure in this: that God has a plan, that plan is centered on you and that plan is more than the sum of who you are alone: that plan needs God to make it happen! Trust Him to direct you and lean on Him when you are not enough.

BE certain of WHO you are: A child of God. BE steady in your faith, believe all things are possible. BE safe in the knowledge that God loves you and He has got you! 

One of my insecurities is centered on this blog. Do I have any business writing this, teaching, sharing, preaching here? Alone, the answer is no. With God, all things are possible. 

Join the Discussion and Comment Below: 
What is one of your insecurities? 

Self Help 101? No thank you!

Have you ever gotten in your own way before? It is easy to answer this question but hard to answer the next one; Why? Why do we get in our own way?

Just throwing this out there, but it may be because we try to do things on our own.  I don’t know about you, but I get tired of trying to be everything I am “supposed” to be all of the time. I get wrapped up in the peer pressure of the church and of the world and both can be dangerous things. We need to stop comparing ourselves to one another and JUST FOLLOW CHRIST!

Whoa, you say, there is no peer pressure in the church….to that I ask where do you go to church, because I want to go there.  Look, people are people, no matter where they are, everyone is broken: otherwise we wouldn’t need Jesus!

I have always considered myself to be a bit of a black sheep when it came to everything, my family, my church, my life in Christ. This negative view of myself has allowed me to wrongly excuse my poor choices in life and only in the light of Christ do I begin to see this stronghold for what it is: it is a lie.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (NLT)

We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 

I am the righteousness of God in Christ, I am the head and not the tail, I rejoice because God is not a respecter of persons and He has plans for me. These words, ones written in the Bible, must become my ammunition in my battle against lies. These words must become my words, they must build my faith. They must carry more weight in my life than the lies I believed because someone of authority once told me a falsehood.

You are not worthless, you are not forgotten, you are not just like your deadbeat father, or destined to be a failure. Whoever told you these lies, well, they are wrong!  And it is time to get free of the strongholds these lies created in you.

One of the lies I have believed is that I have to always “be” a certain way now that I am a Christian. While it is true we strive for the “high Calling” of God perfection is not an option for me, because I am human. Here is another lie: I grew up thinking I was constantly a disappointment to God because the other people in my life seemed to be disappointed in me so often. If it was so impossible to please my dad, how could I ever please God?  The truth is I do not frustrate the grace of God. The truth is God loves me, and His grace is enough. The truth is God sings over me, HE is not waiting with a big stick to knock me over the head whenever I fall short.

We need to grab those things that exalt themselves higher than God in our lives, those lies we believe because our parents always said, or because we always thought a certain way, and bring them down! Pull down those strongholds by building up our faith. Asserting who we are in Christ is the only way to become free of the lies about ourselves that we believed until now. This will allow us to get out of our own way, and become more like Christ and less like that black sheep. After all, we are HIS sheep and we follow HIS voice!

This is not what I intended to write today. This is not what I studied last night and it is not where I thought God wanted to go when I first sat down at this keyboard. But I know that this is the only thing I could say right now. It was like a groaning in my spirit. I have believed so many lies before, I still struggle with the walls these lies erected between me and God. I want them torn down! I want to live in the freedom of God’s grace. I want to know the truth because it is not just truth that sets me free, BUT THE TRUTH I KNOW that sets me free. Don’t you want the same? Doesn’t your spirit cry out in the wilderness for more of God? 

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that breakthrough is a VERB!