The Battle of Truth and Lies

James 1:14-18

Verse 16  Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

    After our discussion about temptation, James reminds us not to be deceived.  What is he not wanting us to be deceived about?

    Just as the enemy likes to create doubt in our mind about God, he deceives us about various other things in life.  And he isn’t the only one.  There will be those in our lives that will willingly lead us astray and there are times we even lie to ourselves.  We may even repeat the lies that the enemy or others say to or about us.

    We are prone to believe the negative about ourselves, especially when it is said by someone we highly admire or someone we can’t stand.  Maybe that is because those planted thoughts go against what we want to believe about ourselves.  If we have straight hair we too readily believe that curly hair is more attractive.  If we are short we believe it is better to be tall and those of us that are tall feel awkward as we tower over everyone around us and so either way we look at it, we think we are missing out of what is best.  We don’t understand the damage those kinds of thoughts can have on us, not only mentally, but also spiritually.

    When we choose to believe that we aren’t as good as someone else because we don’t have one thing or another that we wish we had, we are doubting God’s goodness and believing the lie that He must love them more than He loves us because He has given them what we want.  That could lead us to some very selfish thinking because it sets us to thinking that we deserve more than anyone else.

    When we focus on the things that are lies we start to believe them.  Just as those lies drag us down emotionally there are lies that bring us down spiritually.  When we hear and believe lies about our spiritual nature we too often fall into the trap of believing them without question.  And this believing of lies leads us to believe that we aren’t really God’s.  Some of those lies are that we need to work to earn our salvation.  If this were true then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come and die for our sins.  Or we may hear and believe the lie that we can never be good enough for God.  While that has truth, it is only a partial truth which makes it a lie as it leads us once again to the thought that we are to be working for our salvation.  The truth is simply this: God loves us enough to send His Son to die for our sins.  He sees the truth of us and still loves us.  And if we love Him we will live to show how much we love Him.

Making It Personal

    What lies have you been believing about yourself?  How have they hindered you emotionally and spiritually?  What truths do you need to take to heart and continue to repeat so that they you can reverse the effects of the lies?

Making It Personal Kids

    What is a lie?  How do you know if something is a lie?  How can you know truth?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for giving us Your truth so that we don’t have to listen to the lies that come at us.  Give us the wisdom to know truth from lies immediately.  In Jesus’ name, amen.