Even for the Spirit-filled believer, the mind can be the devil’s playground—a place where the enemy swoops in and plants all manner of lies and deception at every possible opportunity.
If you’ve been a Christian for long enough, you’re cognizant that having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ doesn’t make one immune to anxious thoughts, fears about the future or nagging feelings of angst and uncertainty.
Regardless of whether you’ve known the Lord for 20 days, 20 months or 20 years, it’s still possible to fall into the trap of entertaining the untruths that Satan loves to whisper—or scream—into our ears in hopes that we’ll grow discouraged in our walk with the Lord and be less effective in fulfilling the calling He’s placed on our lives.
So what are the lies that the devil most often likes to throw at children of God? And what can we as soldiers of the cross do to combat them?
Up next are four falsehoods we’re likely to be confronted with in our Christian journey—and how we can push back through the power of the Holy Spirit and the promises found in God’s Word.
1. God hasn’t forgiven or forgotten my past sins. Since it’s often impossible for us as human beings to ever completely forget our past mistakes or forgive ourselves for making them, it’s hard to fathom that God keeps no record of our sins and wrongdoings. So, one of Satan’s favorite schemes is to bring up our sins over and over again in our mind so that we won’t walk in the forgiveness and grace that God extends to us through His Son’s atoning sacrifice.
Don’t fall for this ploy of the enemy, but instead hold fast to God’s promise that “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:12). The same Bible also says that “He will tread down our iniquities and cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:19). When God sees us, He doesn’t see our sins; He sees His son because “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
2. God doesn’t really answer prayer. If you’ve ever waited any length of time for a prayer to be answered, the thought has probably entered your mind that God doesn’t really answer prayer. In reality, God doesn’t answer every prayer the way that we would prefer, but that doesn’t mean He’s not a prayer-answering God.
If the Lord wasn’t in the prayer-answering business, Jesus wouldn’t have said, “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). Nor would our Lord have taught that “whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive” (Matt. 21:22). When Satan tries to convince you that God doesn’t answer prayer, don’t buy the lie. There’s more than enough Scripture to refute this untruth.
3. God doesn’t care about me or love me. In our moments of weakness and distress, the devil—who “walks around as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8)—will attempt to persuade us that God simply doesn’t care about us. And, of course, if you believe He doesn’t care about you, it’s easy to go a step further and think He doesn’t love you, either. But He does.
He loves and cares enough that He sent His only Son to die for us so that we might be reconciled to Him and live with Him forever in a place called heaven, escaping the eternal punishment that we would deserve if Christ hadn’t blotted out all of our sins by His blood. And along with loving us enough to lay down His life for us, Scripture teaches that Christ cares about our everyday comings and goings and feelings. “’The very hairs of your head are all numbered,’ Jesus said. ‘Therefore do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows’” (Matt. 10:30-31).
4. The bottom is about to fall out. If you’ve ever lost your job or thought you were going to lose it, or if you’ve ever worried about inflation or the state of the economy, you’ve probably feared the possibility of not having the daily provisions you need to live a happy and healthy life. Satan loves to use the news media and other misleading voices to sell the idea that we’re one bad break away from being on a street corner in need of basic necessities.
If we allow ourselves to ruminate on these kinds of thoughts, we’ll quickly become paralyzed by fear and our relationship with our Lord and Savior will suffer. Instead, let the Holy Spirit lead you to passages like Philippians 4:19 where the apostle Paul wrote that “My God shall supply your every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Or go back to the Old Testament where King David penned these powerful words: “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor their offspring begging bread” (Ps. 37:25).
No matter how much or how often the enemy tries to convince us the bottom is about to fall out, it isn’t. God’s Word assures us of this.
Jared Turner is a freelance writer living in North Carolina.
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