Have you ever felt like you were becoming smaller because of what someone said about you? Have you ever heard someone say something about you that you, in the beginning, knew wasn’t true, but after a while you started to act like they were true because the same words were repeated time and time again? Or have you ever felt like some words that someone told you made you come a little bit more alive, because they were breaking lies about you that you believed for a long time?
I don’t know how words have affected you, but I know that in my own life, all of this has happened. In my life words have both killed a part of me, but also made a part of me that once was dead come alive. I really do think that words have the power to do that. To kill and destroy. But also to bring life and healing. I’m not the only one to believe this to be true. In the Bible we can read; ”Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose.”
- “I’m not enough.”
- “I can’t do this.”
- “I’m too much.”
- “I’m not beautiful.”
- “I’m alone and no one REALLY wants to be my friend.”
- “What Jesus did on the cross is for everyone else. I’m too much of a mess for Him to forgive me.”
These are some of the lies I’ve believed. It’s so easy to believe in the lies of this world. Especially since many of them have been in our minds for a long time. Maybe we started to believe in them when we lost a friend, when someone was just joking with us (but we didn’t agree with it being funny), when we were going through a difficult time in our lives or simply because we live in a world that is full of lies. No matter how the lies came into our minds and how long they have been there, I think that most of us can agree with that they often are so real that we almost could touch them.
One of the hardest things about this might be that it’s not always that we fight against the lies we believe in. Sometimes it’s easier and more comfortable to believe in lies than in the truth. But most of the time, I think, the problem isn’t that we don’t want to fight against the lies. Often the problem is that we have believed in them for such a long time that we have started to believe it to be the truth.
Another thing that might be even harder about this is that the lies often make us become less than who we actually are created to be. That it limits our ability to be ourselves. That has been a big problem in my life a lot of times. For example when I’ve believed that “I’m too much of a mess for Jesus to forgive me”, it’s been hindering me from drawing close to Him. Or when I’ve believed that “no one wants to be my friend”, it’s made me isolated instead of reaching out to people.
Okey, so we believe in lies? Now what? Is that all? Are we stuck in lies? No, my friend. The good thing is that we can help each other in this. We can speak life and truth over each other. We can help each other to be who we actually are created to be, by breaking those lies. We can’t do the work of breaking the root of those lies. Only God can do that. But we can help each other one step closer the truth about who we are. We can encourage each other.
When someone says; “I can’t do this!”, help them believe that nothing is impossible. When someone thinks that no one cares, tell them; “I care!” When someone doesn’t believe they’re beautiful let them know that they are. When someone believes they are too broken or too much of a mess, let them know that we all are broken, that we all are a mess but that Jesus is more than enough for our brokenness.
We all believe some lies and we don’t always see it. We don’t always know how to fight against the lies. But we can fight for each other. We can help each other to believe in the truth. We can help each other become more of ourselves. Your words can change things. Your words can kill and destroy. Your words can bring life and healing. There are way too many lies in this world already. We don’t need to be the ones bringing even more lies to this place. Let us instead be the ones who encourages.
livspiruetter 