Manuscript – my book blogged one article at a time - Page 8 of 12

LIE: Prayer is useless

Lie: Prayer is useless, a waste of time.
Truth: Prayer will eventually fill all of our time.

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. — Abraham Lincoln

I hear this lie – prayer is useless – whispered in my ear as a convenient excuse to avoid God when I’m not willing to deal with the bigger lies like: God doesn’t exist; God doesn’t care, or I don’t need God. I’m also tempted to believe this lie when I’m not dealing with the sin in my life: hypocrisy if I do pray, condemnation if I don’t (more on the reasons we fall for this lie later). The real tragedy is that so many Christians never experience . . .

LIE: I am defeated, part 2

In the first part I outlined the defeatist mentalities that we can easily assume if we harbor this lie. Then I described two of the foundational truths we need to believe to overcome these deadly lifestyles. In this part 2, I’ll go into the meaning and practice of the third and final truth: that we must take up our own cross.

LIE: I am defeated, part 1

Lie: I am defeated.
Truth: We now share in the final triumph of Christ.
We’ve all felt defeated, either because of weaknesses or sins or failures or a general lack of achievement. The recording in our heads plays an endless loop: ‘you’re lame, worthless, useless, an all-around failure,’ and then the refrain follows – ‘and nothing will ever, ever change.’ Many Christians see no way to switch it off because, in most cases, the reasons for us to feel lame, worthless, useless and a failure, happen to be true. And simply trying to forgive ourselves or tell ourselves that we’re victims of the human condition or even ‘sinners saved by grace,’ doesn’t really help.
Inevitably, this defeated mentality produces some easily predictable lives . . .

LIE: God is irrelevant

Lie: God is irrelevant.
Truth: God is relevant.

The greatest source of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips but deny him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. — Brennan Manning

This lie is often felt but seldom acknowledged.
The question burns: relevant or irrelevant to what? God is irrelevant to . . . me, my life, my finances, my job? or irrelevant to the world, that is, the one I live in: business, science, popular culture? In other words, how does God really matter, that is, as opposed to things we know that matter: health, family, age, technology, weather, government services, education, money, food? You get the idea.

LIE: God doesn’t care

Of all the lies, perhaps the most pitiful and damaging is: God doesn’t care. After a long agony, those who reach this point of despair end up hollowing themselves out, and may also end up walking about the rest of their days as the living dead. Often people arrive at this nadir only after enduring an inordinate amount of pain, neglect or abuse from those who should be caring for them. Tragically, many of those who absorb this lie become . . .

LIE: God is mean

Lie: God is mean.
Truth: Our heavenly Father is full of mercy and grace.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. — Helen Keller

In this life we suffer, some much more than others, and honestly, at times it really does seem senseless. The young boy with leukemia with his bald head, smiling, pulling his IV pole along; the burn victims, inhumanely scarred; the sadness and chronic addiction of the Native American tribes; the tornado victims, lost, searching for their keepsakes in the shambles of what was once their homes. I could go on; we all could. We’re saddened for the suffering, but we quickly turn away. It simply is too painful to linger long.

LIE: God does not exist

Lie: God doesn’t exist
Truth: God lives.

“I was at this time, like so many Atheists or Antitheists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world.” — C S Lewis
This lie is perhaps the most audacious of all. But no one seriously questioned the existence of God until the modern era, that is, until Charles Darwin conceived the first grand vision of the world’s origins thought worthy to compete with the creation story in Genesis. People always presumed that . . .

LIE: The Christian life is a matter of understanding and following biblical principles

Lie: The Christian life is a matter of understanding and following biblical principles.
Truth: The Christian life is a matter of understanding and following Jesus Christ.

It may not appear to be so, but there is a world of difference between those two statements. But since Jesus is physically unseen and unheard and only spiritually apprehended, the two may blur if we’ve not been properly introduced to the Person, Jesus.
In our eagerness as evangelicals to make converts, we push too many, even manipulate some by simple, rote prayers and formulas to become a Christian. But these souls were never really taught to hear for themselves the call of Jesus on their lives. Becoming a Christian is not simply . . .

LIE: We preach the gospel to get people saved so that they can avoid hell and go to heaven when they die

Lie: We preach the gospel to get people saved so that they can avoid hell and go to heaven when they die.
Truth: We preach the gospel, the good news that Jesus died, was buried and rose again, to announce that Jesus is King of kings.

Make people wish the gospel were true and then show them that it is. — Blaise Pascal

We must be clear on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. The problem with the lie above is that it focuses on man and uses God to solve man’s problem. The true gospel focuses on God and what he has done. This is not semantics.
Let’s look at an analogy. Let’s say that you’re a seven-year-old boy . . .

LIE: We must wait and pray until we are certain of God’s direction; otherwise, we are presumptuous and will displease him

Lie: We must wait and pray until we are certain of God’s direction; otherwise, we are presumptuous and will displease him.
Truth: We must act according to his revealed will while praying for specific direction.

‘What is God’s will for my life?’ ‘What college should I attend?’ ‘What career should I pursue?’ ‘Who should I marry and where should we live?’ Certainly all important questions, but if they’re asked in isolation, they really miss the mark. The irony is that so many well-meaning Christians are paralyzed by the fear of missing God’s will but don’t realize that, by doing so, they already have. But don’t panic, the truth is better than you think – it usually is.