Masked as wisdom or self-protection, these nine subtle lies can quietly eat away at your faith from the inside out.
“Your private sin isn’t affecting anybody else, so it doesn’t really matter”
Secret sin and private bitterness can feel like victimless choices that don’t affect anyone else because they exist solely inside your own head. The lie wants you to believe that your character is compartmentalized.
Yet, the reality is that harboring hidden moral failings chips away at our character bit by bit, numbs our spiritual awareness, and ultimately spills over into our interactions with those nearby. Nothing in our lives will stay secret forever.
In Luke 8: 17, God says, “Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed.”
“You need to get yourself together before you can come near to God”
The sovereignty of grace means we can run to God while we are still a mess, but this lie attacks that truth by making you believe faithfulness is a reward for spiritual cleanliness.
You believe that your mess isn’t holy enough and you need to fix yourself up before you come into God’s presence.
But if God was willing to sacrifice His one and only Son while we were sinners, then we can certainly come to Him as we are. In Romans 5: 8, Paul writes, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
“Comfort and convenience are the ultimate proof that you are walking in God’s will”
Easy is synonymous with God’s favor in your mind and you’ll go to great lengths to avoid hard obedience or God calling you to something outside of your comfort zone.
The slightest spiritual resistance, sacrifice or opposition causes alarm bells to go off in your mind that you must have turned down the wrong road.
Jesus addressed this deceitful notion when he told his disciples in John 16: 33 that in this world you will have trouble, but take heart for He has already overcome the world.
“If you forgive them, you are just letting them off the hook and erasing what they did”
You feel like your anger is somehow protecting you or serving justice. You may even believe that your offender is only behind bars because you are holding a grudge against them.
What your heart doesn’t know is that by holding onto your anger, you are the one who is imprisoned in bitterness while your offender freely walks around.
Ephesians 4:31-32 says to let go of bitterness and anger, but to be kind and forgive one another, as in Christ God forgave you.
“What you’ve done in the past will always limit your usefulness to God”
Sin sneaks into your mind and tells you that you can receive forgiveness from God, but you’ll never be a true contender in His kingdom. It keeps you stuck in regrets of what you could’ve done or should’ve done.
What you didn’t know is that God constantly restores our faith when we believe the lies that we are second class Christians because of our past mistakes, heartbreaks, or years wasted on sinful decisions.
2 Corinthians 5: 2 Corinthians 5:17 assures us that anyone in Christ is a brand new person, with their old life behind them and a new one unfolding.
“God is holding back good things from you because He wants to restrict your joy”
It was the first lie Satan ever told Eve in the Garden of Eden. It plants a small seed of doubt that God is trying to limit your joy when He places guardrails in your life.
Temptation will make the pleasures of this world seem like freedom, and God will seem like the dictator trying to steal your joy.
Psalm 84:11 says, “The LORD is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and glory. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
“You’ve got to be hyper-independent or else everything will fall apart”
Obsessing over control is another form that anxiety often takes.
You may believe God is nowhere to be found or doesn’t care about your daily burdens when you think that you alone, in your fragile human strength, have to keep your family, career, or future together.
This way of life will leave you constantly tired and living in fear.
Let God take full control by reminding yourself of Proverbs 3:5-6. It says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
“Delay means denial, so God must have forgotten about your prayers”
It can be easy to believe God is nowhere to be found when your prayers aren’t being answered on your timing.
Deception leads you to believe God is late with the answers you seek and you grow impatient and try to do things yourself. You start swinging wildly with your words and decisions trying to force something to happen that will only result in more unnecessary drama.
When you feel impatient, remember Isaiah 40: 31 says, “But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary.”
“You can wage war in the spiritual realm with your mind, strength and logic”
You’ll miss the spiritual forces behind your daily struggles, fatigue and temptation when you rely solely on human wisdom and toughness.
When you view your internal battles as just psychological or circumstantial issues, you attempt to fight spiritual warfare with ineffective physical weapons.
Ephesians 6:12–13 unveils this blind spot: “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities…” We are also instructed to “take up the full armor of God, so that we can withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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