Expose the lie; embrace the truth

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “The Great Adventure”

Our Bible verse for today: “When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Expose the lie; embrace the truth”

Satan is a liar and he is the father of lies. Worse, not only does Satan tell lies, but he tells lies about us and then he gets us to believe those lies. Then he works to embed those lies so deeply into our minds that they become deeply held beliefs we have about ourselves. Those lies then direct our thinking, even at the subconscious level.

In his book, “Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life” Pastor Craig Groeschel relies on both Biblical truth and neurological science to prove this point. The science of the brain has advanced to the point that scientists can now demonstrate that our most deeply embedded beliefs create neural pathways in our brain, almost like a trench or a rut. Those pathways lead our thoughts in the same direction every time, resulting in the same actions repeated over-and-over again. Those neural responses become automatic and take place at the subconscious level.

When Satan has convinced us of a lie about ourselves and then reinforced that lie repeatedly, a neural pathway develops in our brain. Belief in that lie becomes embedded and our response to it becomes automatic, even subconscious. Craig offers an example of this from his own life. As a child he was taught to believe that he was never good enough and that he never would be good enough. That lie was reinforced so often that it created a neural pathway that influenced Craig’s thinking about himself in a thousand ways, without him even realizing it. As a result, he became a strong “Type A” personality driven to workaholism and a constant effort to prove to the world that he really was good enough. That obsession then took over his life; it damaged relationships and drove him to exhaustion.

Whatever the lie you believe about yourself, the solution is to first uncover it and acknowledge the control it has over you. Then you identify God’s truth about you that answers that lie, and then you must do the hard work of creating a new neural pathway based in truth. Here’s what that would look like in Craig’s example:

Lie: I’m not good enough.
Truth: “Fear not (Craig), for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Isaiah 43:1
Declaration: I belong to my Father in heaven. I am His. He has redeemed me and called me to Himself. I am good enough and therefore I don’t have to impress anyone.”

Then you repeat that statement to yourself over-and-over again, multiple times each day (the lie, the truth, and the declaration – multiple times each day.) Over time, the true statement about yourself will replace the lie in your thinking. Soon, a new neural pathway will be created which begins to automatically govern your thinking and drive your actions.

As you can probably see already, such a change would have a dramatic impact on your daily life and on the overall course of your life. We will consider another example tomorrow but for today, ask God to help you identify a deeply embedded lie you believe about yourself that really does need to be exposed and removed from your thinking. Expose that lie for what it is and then begin to embrace God’s truth about yourself.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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