Lies Don't Define Us

"Who Am I?" Devotion Series

I can’t tell you how many people have contacted me after reading “Heavenly Places” to tell me their stories, the latest just this past week. Amazingly, many have had the same experience as the main character, Treva. They grew up with mothers who made them feel ugly and inferior. And they live still with the struggle to get beyond it, to stop believing the lie that’s been hammered into their heads.

My heart aches for them, and for the others who’ve lived with variations of that theme—someone or something in the past that has caused them to feel “less than.” The past can loom so large, sweeping with gale force into the present, robbing us of joy and peace, dictating our choices. Telling us what to believe. Maybe I’m not good enough…. Maybe I’m not deserving…. Maybe God’s blessings aren’t for me.

Lies!

In Christ, we are set free from the past. We are new creatures; “the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is not a cliché; it’s the truth. In Christ our eyes are opened to the truth. The lies are exposed. We don’t need to dwell on them, nurse them, or continue to give them power over our lives. We need to kick them out.

Those lies do not define us. They’re not who we are. The enemy may have tried to brainwash you to believe certain things about yourself, but God’s truth has the power to conquer them all. When He says the “old things” are gone, He means it.

You just have to believe it.

So how do we kick the lies out of your head? God gives us the prescription. He tells us in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Elsewhere, He says to lay aside the old self and “be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Did you notice that both verses deal with the mind? As you fill your mind with truth—the Word of God—that truth will overpower the lies that have persisted for far too long. Truth will kick them out.

In “Heavenly Places,” Treva was set free through the study of Ephesians. Ephesians is full of precious gems regarding who you are and what the Lord has done for you. I highly recommend it as an excellent “mind renewal” study…so you can be who GOD says you are.

Heavenly Father, you know the lies that have bound me for too long. And You know I don’t have the strength in myself to overcome them. I’m praying, Lord, that You will be my strength. Lead me in Your truth and give me understanding of Your truth so my mind can be renewed. Set me free to walk in the truth of who You say I am. In Jesus’ name, Amen.