2 Truths & A Lie...Kind Of

The way I see it there are 2 kinds of liars in this world: those who tell a fib so outrageous it makes you roll your eyes and laugh at their ignorance, and those who like to sprinkle in a little bit of truth to try and trip you up. The second kind of liars are the ones you have to be extra wary of. This is the kind of liar Satan is.

It's always easier to believe a lie when it sounds like the truth, or when it has some skewed truth mixed in to conceal the deception. In the garden, Satan used this tactic to deceive Eve and convince her to disobey God and eat the fruit. He made sin look enticing. That is the biggest lie we face in this world, that God is a "fun-restrictor" and doing whatever we please will bring us pleasure.

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The Bible describes the serpent in the garden as "the shrewdest of all the wild animals God had made." (Genesis 3:1) His first question to Eve was, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?" (v. 1b) Let's take a pause here: God did not say this. He said they may not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2: 16-17) because they would die. Already the serpent is setting Eve up for disaster.

Satan is great at twisting the truth to be an enticing deadly trap. I can bet it probably won't take much for you to identify areas of your life where this kind of thinking takes place. Maybe the secret sin you struggle with, and you find yourself justifying it by twisting God's truth to fit our narrative. Putting a mask on our sin does not make it less deadly; just how putting on a spider-man mask at Halloween does not give us the ability to shoot webs or scale buildings.

One of my favorite books is The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is written from the perspective of demons in the form of letters to help us better understand how they work and infiltrate our lives. Satan is real, and He is specifically coming after each of our Achilles' heel. A quote from this book reads, "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts..." (C.S. Lewis). Like I said earlier, Satan is tricky. If we start to feel the jolts of the effects of our sin too violently we will be more aware of them and more likely to turn away. He gives us a nice wide ramp to stroll down, away from God and into destruction. Be on guard.

People can be this way too, draining you of peace and attacking you with deception. Again, be on guard. I am currently reading Good Boundaries and Goodbyes by one of my favorite authors, Lysa TerKeurst (I also can't recommend this book and her others enough - she is a true source of wisdom!). Chapter 5 warns against letting others break down your boundaries and steal your emotional, mental and physical wellness. One of my favorite takeaways from this chapter is the phrase "when people aren't respectful of our limits, we can set boundaries, or we can pay consequences" (Lysa TerKeurst). Don't let deceptive people lie to you. Don't let them steal your safety with their lies and toxic behavior.

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The best way to destroy a lie is with the truth.

So what is the truth? God's word. The Sword of The Spirit. Our weapon of defense.

When Satan whispers in your ear "you're not good enough", remind yourself (and him!) that God sent His Son to die for you because of His great insurmountable love for you (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). That will shut him up.

When Satan tries to thwart your God-given purpose by throwing obstacles and failures in your way, remind Him that God has already gone before you and prepared a way for you (Psalms 57:2-3; Isaiah 41:10; Romans 8:31) - there is no room for Satan and his twisted lies here!

So keeping filling your heart with truth. Do this by being in the source of it, cling to His word like it is your live vest - because it is.

The battle is already won, rest in that <3