“Every area in your life, that doesn’t glisten with hope is an indicator that you believe in a lie!” – Steve Backlund”
That is one scary quote! I have seen it’s truth played out in my life over and over. For years I believed that I wasn’t good enough. My walk with God was associated more with the day to day struggle with holiness than to a relationship with a loving God. I never felt good enough because I failed the test over and over. It was drilled into my head…”You missed the mark!” Over and over again those words would prevent me from overcoming and developing a relationship with Jesus Christ. Why? Because it eroded the essential nature of the new creation I became at Salvation. What I ended up with was a salvation that wasn’t complete enough to make me holy.
We talk about self-esteem in the youth and in the schools and how our children have it so hard today. It’s a fight for worth and meaning that causes our teens to do anything to gain validation and respect from their peers. It can get pretty ugly at times causing teens to finally end it all in hopes of finding peace from the hell that is their life on earth. I believe that for the most part, this struggle does not change the moment a teen turns 20. It continues and some portion or element of the struggle will often continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. And this very thing is rampant today in the church.
I believe that this is one of the biggest lies the enemy uses today to paralyze the church: “You missed the mark! You’re not good enough! You’re not worthy! You’ll never amount to anything! You’re a good for nothing sinner, just accept it. You’ll never be pleasing to God.”
And what has been our historic answer to the struggle that people face?
“Just try harder!”
Most of the time the people who are telling others to try harder may have some great story of how God helped them to become better people. They may have had an element of victory in their life, but they are still not living from a place of worth and value instilled by God. When working harder to be righteous is the answer, we’ve missed the foundational teaching of Grace…”I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.” Who am I trying to impress? Usually we end up trying to kill the flesh instead of living according to the Spirit.
Lack of confidence, fear and shame regularly sit in our churches week after week without being confronted. Where do these strongholds come from? Lies built-in to our past. Somewhere in our history we learned that we weren’t good enough. Somewhere in our history we learned that we weren’t worthy. It may have come through friends, parents, siblings and even the church, but until we begin to believe otherwise we will forever be chasing after a carrot at the end of the string.
John 8:31, 34-36 says, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free…everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Jesus counted you worthy enough to die on the cross for you in order to deal with your sin once and for all. To bring you out of slavery to sin into the family of God as a son or daughter of the King. Sin no longer rules you. Loving relationship with God is the order of the day now!
If we take a look at our lives and are honest about our struggles and the hopelessness we feel at times, I’m convinced we’ll find lies lodged in the fabric our past.
It has taken me a few years now, but each day God is replacing lies with truth that set me free to enjoy relationship with him instead of trying to work harder at pleasing him.
For years I let other people’s opinions of me rule my life. I let the devil’s opinion of me paralyze me with fear that kept me from the destiny God had lined up. But what do you do when you discover a lie? They’re not always that easy to discover either because lies are meant to be believed! They always sound believable. It’s just their nature.
One thing I’ve learned is that the best source of truth is God. Ask God what lies you are believing. He’ll show you. He wants you to be free! And when he shows you the lie, renounce it. Remove agreement with it and then say, “God, show me Your truth.” He will show you. Once you get God’s truth into your heart and begin believing it, your life will truly begin to change. I’m still growing and at times I find myself looking for worth, but now I’m a little quicker to clue in and realize there’s a lie that got past my firewall somewhere and like a virus it infected my heart.
Just want to leave you with a video from a new band called MIKESCHAIR. This song expresses the heart of this post in a way that will move you in one of two ways. It will either cause lies you’ve believed to come to the surface and be exposed or it will affirm what you already know and believe about yourself…YOU ARE WORTHY.
