we have a choice
From Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace, by John Mark Comer:
"Here's the problem: our capacity to hold unreality in our minds is our genius, but it's also our Achilles heel. Because not only can we imagine unreality, but we can also come to believe in it. We can put our faith in ideas that are untrue or, worse, that are lies.
As Willard once said, "We truly live at the mercy of our ideas."
Because the ideas that we believe in our minds and then let into our bodies give shape to the trajectory of our souls. Put another way, they shape how we live and who we become.
When we believe truth--that is, ideas that correspond to reality--we show up to reality in such a way that we flourish and thrive. We show up to our bodies, to our sexuality, to our interpersonal relationships, and above all, to God himself in a way that is congruent with the Creator's wisdom and good intentions for his creation. As a result, we tend to be happy.
But when we believe lies--ideas that are not congruent with the reality of God's wise and loving design--and then, tragically open our bodies to those lies and let them into our muscle memories, we allow an ideological cancer to infect our souls. We live at odds with reality, and as a result we struggle to thrive.
Can I admit something to you?
It seems that I am wired in such a way that it is far easier to believe the evidence that the world, the flesh, and the devil bring against me to prove the unreality. For some reason, it’s easier, in the words of Comer, “to open [my] body to those lies and let them into [my] muscle memory.” Lies about how God sees me, what he thinks of me, his disposition toward me. And I can live at the mercy of such words.
But I, we, have a choice.
We can choose not to believe the lies.
We can believe truth.
We can believe God.
We can be happy.
Here’s some truth for you.
If you believe in Jesus, then the Father looks down at you, and says, “You are my beloved child, and with you, I am well-pleased.”
