Are You Listening to Lies?
Several years ago, our family walked through a very difficult season of loss, both personally and vocationally. Loss of innocence in a child’s life. Loss of mental health. Loss of a dream we’d been investing in for years. Loss of vision and purpose. Loss of my editing business. Loss of physical health. Loss of finances and friendships and so much of what had been our normal. I share in more depth about that time in my book, but in short, it felt like looking down a long, dark tunnel and wondering if we’d make it through.
That season lasted about two years, and we spent six months of those two years on high alert in constant vigilance with one of our children. When we finally reached the end of that dark tunnel, some of those losses were restored, but most were not. Though we had survived that season, our healing journey had just begun.
The experience had ended, but the impact of it was still heavy on me. Dream-shattering moments like that are not something we just walk away from unscathed. Some things change us forever. Even after the wounds heal, the scars remain. I found myself feeling hopeless and questioning my calling and vision for my life.
When I tried to dream about the future, I felt overwhelmed by the disappointments of the past. I’d always been an optimistic and hopeful person, but now I felt afraid that the pain, failure, and disappointment of the past would also characterize my future. Though I knew God had spoken to me about my life and calling, I was having a hard time believing what he’d said.
It’s normal to feel trepidation about risking again in an area where we’ve failed or experienced pain. Facing that fear is part of our grief and healing process. But this fight to believe and risk again is not just a mental and emotional one; it’s also a spiritual one.
The Bible tells us the devil is a liar (see John 8:44). In fact, lying is one of the primary strategies he uses against us. He attempts to use our pain and loss against us—using it to fuel doubt and fear in our lives so that we will settle for mediocrity and stop saying yes to God’s call for our lives.
In Paul’s famous chapter on spiritual warfare, he says, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16). Those flaming darts are lies, but Paul tells us we can silence them with our faith.
Coming out of that season of loss, I had begun to listen to the lies of the enemy telling me that my future would turn out like my past. It seemed safer to settle for mediocrity than to put my faith and trust in God’s promises and hope for his goodness to manifest in my life. I wanted better, I wanted to walk in his goodness and might, but I was scared to believe for it, because I was scared of the possibility of disappointment again. If I didn’t believe, I couldn’t be disappointed, right?
Then one day, God whispered to my heart. “You’ve been believing a lie,” He said. “I want you to believe my truth—nothing is impossible.” His words illuminated the path I’d been on. I realized how far I had given in to hopelessness and disappointment. And I knew that had to change. I decided that I would rather risk belief and the possibility of disappointment than never believe or hope again. That is no way to live.
From that day forward, I went to war with the phrase God had whispered to my heart, declaring over and over that with God nothing is impossible (see Matt. 19:26). And over time, this declaration of faith became a shield for my mind, enabling me to persevere. I stopped believing the enemy’s lie about my future and found the faith to dream with God again.
If you are struggling to have faith and hope for a particular area of your life, ask God for a word of encouragement that you can cling to, and then use that word as a declaration. Turn it into a shield against the enemy’s lies.
The truth is, God is not hopeless about your future. He is inviting you into his goodness and breakthrough, but you’ll miss it if you’re listening to lies.
To purchase Amy’s book, The Way Back to Hope, CLICK HERE!
Subscribe to Amy’s mailing list to receive a FREE downloadable study guide for The Way Back to Hope and be the first to know when she posts a new blog.