The Lies You Tell Yourself

Have you ever shared a struggle with someone and while you’re sharing you suddenly hear the words coming from your lips are lies you’ve been telling yourself?

You don’t view yourself as dishonest because who trusts those people, right? But lies, regardless of how small, that drip out of our mouths like a leaky tap, leave you wondering where all this deception comes from. The fact that you’ve been happily doing your thing, just keeping your head down and minding your own business for a while should give the enemy no room to start pestering you. And yet, he doesn’t need much more than a sliver of a gap in your armour to send you reeling. So, how do you stop the lies you tell yourself? Well, read on…

I recently went ten-pin bowling with a group of girlfriends and when it was my turn to bowl the pins came down but they were not reset properly. I was going to call the attendant but the girls said, “Just press the reset button.” I did and magically the arm at the other end of the bowling lane cleared the pins and set them properly this time so I could take my turn. I joked and said, “I think we all need one of these buttons!” They all nodded in agreement.

The thing is when you’ve been called by God to do something for Him and you’re still scratching your head years later wondering if He did make a mistake when He chose you, it can fuel the lies that circle like vultures in your head getting ready to pick at the flesh of your confidence until it resembles barebones. You quickly become off balance as you find yourself going into a tailspin of chaotic emotions that sink into the pit of your stomach like a bag full of bricks. These toxic thoughts are so accommodating to the lies you tell yourself that they all agree to share their one-liners with your soul. “I can’t…I’m not…Who am I?… I think God got it wrong…I’m not that good at…” and on and on the angst-ridden thoughts.

Jennie Allen, author of Get Out Of Your Head reminds her readers that these lies we tell ourselves are narrowed down to just three thoughts.

1. I’m helpless.
2. I’m worthless.
3. I’m unlovable.   

Do these lies ring true for you? Jennie states that “the greatest spiritual battle is taking place between our ears…and those lies we buy into about ourselves are rooted in what we believe about God” and boy, isn’t that so true. And this is why this tactic from our enemy is so effective. Once we start scooping out those poison-tipped arrows in our thinking with the truths found in God’s Word, we close even the smallest gap in our armour so the enemy doesn’t squeeze his way in. How we respond to his schemes is the linchpin on his whole operation and if we chose to feed into the lies we tell ourselves then we’re just doing the devil’s work for him.

It’s weird but the lies you tell yourself almost feel like the moment when you’re nodding off on the sofa on a cold winter’s night while watching a T.V. show. You know you need to get up and go to bed to get a decent night’s sleep, however, you just lay there immobilized because you’re just way too comfortable. This is why the lies we tell ourselves are so potent because our enemy has us right where he wants us on the battlefield of our minds, crippled, disarmed, and paralysed. The comfort of sitting in the middle of those lies, oddly enough, means we don’t have to change or do anything to stop them. The strangely comforting lies we tell ourselves over choosing the bold courage to get up and fight our way through toward God’s truth are just way too appealing.

Right there in our weakened state, it doesn’t take much preparation and planning from the enemy to invalidate and neutralise what God says about us. If we’re a little lacklustre in the reading of God’s Word and our prayer life is a little on the lean side, then those lies spun by our enemy will fit into our thinking so perfectly until we actually start to believe each one of them.

Time to blow those lies you tell yourself to Kingdom come! And the only way to silence them is to spend time with God in His Word and in prayer as your relationship with Him grows. Communing with God is key to dispelling those lies.

However, don’t feel bad when you find you’re telling yourself lies, it happens to the best of us. But do me a favour, when you recognise you’re doing it, stop and press the reset button and tap into the words God speaks over you. When the lies of I’m helpless, I’m worthless or I’m unlovable start to filter into your thinking, remember God is a God of grace and He will help you to dispel the lies and replace them with His truth. But you need to spend time with Him!

So, the next time you find yourself telling lies, just speak this Psalm over yourself because there is nothing hidden that God cannot see. Let His truth settle your heart and mind as you press into Him.

‘Lord, you know everything there is to know about me,

You perceive every movement of my heart and soul,

And you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind.

You are so intimately aware of me, Lord,

You read my heart like an open book. 

And you know all the words I’m about to speak 

Before I even start a sentence!

You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way,

And in kindness, you follow behind me,

To spare me from the harm of my past…

…God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart.

Examine me through and through;

Find out everything that may be hidden within me, 

Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares.

See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on,

And lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways –

The path that brings me back to you.’ 

Psalm 139:1-5 and 23-24.

Wendy xo

Where have the lies you tell yourself left you unravelled? How did you overcome them?