Gen Z Speaks: That Loitering Lie
Welcome to Peniel CrossRoads, where we embrace Jesus’s heart and together live out the call to biblical unity!
Satan likes to speak lies. I’m convinced it’s his favorite hobby, but his absolute favorite is when we actually believe the lies. He feeds us and successfully convinces us to continue on a path away from the Father. I have believed his lies more times than I’d like to admit, but this year the Lord has shown me a specific lie that I have believed for too long. I have believed that I am too imperfect to live diligently in God’s Word. Frankly, I had no idea this was even a lie I was believing until the Lord dragged it into the open and said, “Hey Lucy, let me break you down and build you back up into a deeper relationship with me.”
I accepted Christ when I was ten years old, and my faith has played a critical role in the decisions I have made since then: how I spent my summers, what jobs I took, even where I went to college were each heavily impacted by my relationship with Him. And yet, I have continued to struggle with consistently being in His Word. God’s Word has never been absent from my life, but it tends to be difficult to read independently. When I am prepping a devotion time, leading a group bible study, speaking, or meeting with a friend, I dive into the Word without hesitation, but in the evening or the morning when I’m alone with my Bible, I hesitate. Why is that?
There are a couple of answers to this question I can think of. The first being that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching and reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Studying Scripture on my own, daily, means opening myself up to being rebuked in order to be trained into the righteousness of God. On some days, all my mind remembers is the rebuking and not the training and preparation that comes from the Word. It also means being held accountable by Christ to live out the life laid out in Scripture, but isn’t that the beauty of knowing Him more?
On other days, I simply feel unworthy of spending time in the Word. I look at other believers around me and create this false reality that each of them is daily in the Word for hours, analyzing each line. Now, I know there are a few people in my life that this would be true of, but I am really creating a false reality of what other people’s walk with Christ looks like and comparing myself to it. I am comparing my truth to a lie, and letting a fictitious answer rule my thoughts. This comparison leads me to believe that if I haven’t been in the Word each day, I am not worthy of studying it today. The Bible tells us the truth in Hebrews 4:12 stating, “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Word is alive. The Word is God’s love letter to us, meeting us where we are and inviting us to know God on a deeper level. We are innately unworthy, but the Word is designed to speak into that and prune us with the sharp sword into righteousness. We have to demolish the lie that we are too imperfect to be diligently in the Word; the Word takes us in our brokenness when the world tells us we are too far gone—or that we can be good without God.
Christ invites us into understanding and to experience His living Word amidst our brokenness. If the Word can discern our thoughts and intentions and is useful for correction and training, that is the exact place we need to be when we feel unworthy or scared. We must show ourselves grace when we fail to be in the Word, but it is crucial that we keep pushing ourselves back into scripture. We must recognize and act on the fact that Scripture is the one truth we need to submerge ourselves in when the lies are loud.
~by Lucille LaMar
LORD, give us the desire to know Your Word, the wisdom to understand Your Word, the willingness to apply Your Word to our lives, and the courage to wield it against the lies of evil. Amen.