Truth vs. Lies
Like many of us, something I've struggled with for as long as I can remember is anxiety. Deep rooted anxiety that can sometimes cause physical symptoms of nausea, hot and cold sweating, dizziness and the feeling like I could pass out. As I got older, that anxiety manifested into feelings of self doubt, self worth, becoming very self conscious and that I was never good enough. I would struggle trying to figure out what to wear on a daily basis, what people would think of me and had problems making decisions for myself. Don’t misunderstand me- these are things I still struggle with, but have learned to identify what is happening now.
My mom seemed so confused and concerned as this problem progressed and would often say things like, “I just don’t understand, you were always so confident in your decisions and strong willed.”
What changed? I often wonder what the turning point for this switch was and I have never been able to truly pinpoint a time. Was it a slow downfall over time?
When my husband and I lost our first baby in 2021, these feelings of not good enough hit even harder. Once again, my body couldn’t even do what it was designed to do and create a safe place for our baby to grow. I went on a downhill spiral pretty quickly. I bought many books on fertility, pregnancy after loss and all the things I could do to *hopefully* help save a future pregnancy. Was it my autoimmune problems that did it? I did tons of research and vowed to eat differently, because maybe my lack of nutrition was the reason we lost our baby. I thought surely it was something I didn’t do good enough, or that my body didn’t do good enough. This was not a healthy place to be. Yes, there can always be changes that can be made to help situations, but when you go down a rabbit hole and let it consume you nothing good ever comes out.
It wasn’t until I started attending mass weekly and committing to actually participate instead of just showing up that I realized what was happening. I realized that for the last 10 years I was believing lies about myself. Believing that I wasn’t good enough, that I wasn’t worthy enough and that I wasn’t his daughter created in HIS perfect image. Why was my mind thinking this way? The more I dug into our faith and God, the more I realized how real Satan really is and how much he wants to destroy us. These negative thoughts about myself had literally been consuming me for years and Satan was winning. How could I not recognize him?
See, the thing is, Satan uses his tricks and strategies to blind us into thinking these things are the truth. I was recently reading a blog from, Therapy for Christians, about tricks he uses to cause anxiety, depression and these lies and they were listed as follows:
1.He uses lies and deceit
2.He uses fear and discouragement
3.He uses conflict and pride
4.He uses temptation and shame
I thought about these and thought to myself, “wow, this is spot on.” Fear and lies are not of and from God. Truth is. If only it were that easy.
But then I thought, “maybe it can be that easy?” The bible clearly lays out a verse for each of these- the TRUTH.
In John 8:44 the bible tells us, “He is a liar and the father of lies.”
In 2 Timothy 1:7 it tells us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear.”
In Proverbs 13:10, “Pride leads to conflict.”
In James 1:13, “ When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”
Friends, these are our answers. He has written them very clearly for us. Anxiety and the lies will never be from him. Is it always that easy to read a bible verse and then just automatically feel better? No. We are human. But, with practice and trust in our Lord, I encourage you to read these often when you’re anxious and reflect on the TRUTH. If we truly trust God like we say we do, then we have the ability to believe his word and promise and renounce Satan and his lies and to cast out the anxieties he wants us to have.
