Wednesday, April 25, 2012

It's All a Lie

Lies.

Such a great impact comes from these four simple letters. Can you image yourself in a position where you would willingly listen to and believe thousands of lies on a regular basis? Of course not. We refuse to think that we believe lies because we all know that lies bring consequence; they bring confusion, misconception and brokenness.

In reality, we all live under the influence of these nasty little monsters. We turn on the radio, and the anchor oftentimes fills our minds with lies: 

You must lose weight to be loved. 
You must have a date to be loved.
You must actively proclaim Jesus every second of every day to be a Christian.
You must do good works to be saved.
You must fit in with the crowd to be accepted.

We believe these statements, unaware of the resulting affect on our lives. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this deception is its foundation. When Satan speaks lies into our lives, he does not choose something completely illogical. Instead, he twists truth into a lie which we will believe easily. For instance, we need to live a healthy lifestyle, but God still loves us no matter our body type. We need to proclaim God’s message to others, but our salvation does not depend on our works.

Fortunately, Jesus tells us that He has come to bring us truth. Not only that, but according to John 14:6, He is the truth: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (NKJV). He has come to give the eyeglasses to the blind, the eyeglasses which reveal a true picture of reality instead of the fuzzy misconceptions that we accept for ourselves.

The truth will set us free (John 8:32). We hear this repeatedly, but the time has come to apply it to our lives. The time has come to ask God to reveal our personal misconceptions. May we leave no stone unturned as we search the deepest alcoves of our hearts.

WARNING: God will answer. He will expose lies and replace them with truth, but you may encounter difficulty and pain along the way. When you live your entire life under the influence of a lie, it becomes a part of you; it manipulates your actions, your thoughts and your emotions. Removing a lie can mean revising your lifestyle completely. Thankfully, God’s grace fills in the gap of deception’s barbarity. Instead of stealing our joy, He gifts us with it. Instead of defiling our value, He creates us in His image. It’s in this moment of personal revelation that the truth will set us free, indeed.