Unlearning the Lies

Half of learning is unlearning sometimes. If you have been taught something wrongly your whole life it is hard to learn a new way. It is like when you move to a new house in the same city. You have programmed your mind to go home a certain way and if you are not careful you will be at the old house and not where you currently live. (I know this from experience) You have to retrain your brain to head down a new path and a new way of going home. It will not become natural for you until you have reprogrammed your mind to the new way and you might even have to work at not heading down the old path.

So many people do not know what they believe or why they believe it and they fall for lies that they have been taught by well meaning people. Many people do not read the Bible for themselves and they are not encouraged to study the deeper things of God and so they just pick up a belief system that is not true. If you do not believe me then ask yourself, why do I believe what I believe? If it is because someone you trusted told you or a pastor told you then you might be heading down a path that is a lie. Not that those people meant to mislead you but we have to be careful to not just take someone’s word for something and to go to scripture ourselves and see if it is true. (John 8:31-32)

This is what happened for years when Jesus showed up on the scene. The people of God were taught a lot of things that just were not true and Jesus had to come and tell them the truth and start the reprogramming process.

Matthew 5:27-28, 38-39, 43-44

27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'[a] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[a] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[b] and pray for those who persecute you,

Did you hear the relearning taking place? Just because you have been to church does not mean that everything you hear is truth. The people Jesus addressed were listening to their teachers and they were taught the wrong things. My challenge is that no one should ever believe something just because I said it, but because they have studied the word of God for themseleves. People twist the Bible to make it fit their lifestyle rather than fitting their lifestyle to what the word of God says.

If you read John 5:1-9 you come across a man who could not walk for 38 years. He was laying by the pool which he, and many others believed had healing powers. Jesus ask him a question that at first seems very dumb. In verse 6 Jesus ask him, “Do you want to get well?” At first that seems like a dumb question but this man had the mindset that if he could make it into the pool that he would be healed. He was set on the water and what it had to offer that he missed that Jesus was standing right in front of him.

How about you? What things are you looking for to find healing or happiness? What things do you keep running to that you think if you arrive there and no one gets in your way, that you will be satisfied? We all have coping mechanisms that we use to get through life and some are more acceptable than others but that does not make them right. Some turn to drugs, some to food, some to video games and some to other relationships. Are we missing that Jesus, who can heal us, is standing right in front of us?

Romans 12:2 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What things of the world are you turning to instead of turning to Christ?

What mindsets or beliefs do you have that are more of a pattern to the world rather than to scripture?

Do you know what you believe and why you believe it? If not then you might be looking to a lie for satisfaction rather that to Christ.