Thinking Truth in the Face of Persuasive Lies

Words are powerful. Spoken or thought, they influence our quality of life. Negative words for the worse, positive words for the better–as long as they stand on truth. In my experience, many positive words ignore truth. Brush it under the rug in the name of optimism. And depress more than encourage because you know that hard truth is still there every time you walk on that lumpy rug. There’s a difference–actually, let’s not call it a difference. There’s a relationship between thinking positive and thinking truth. Truth alone is not always positive, and positivity alone is not always truth. But marry them and they bring out the best in each other.

What does “She felt forsaken” tell you? Probably not as much as, “She huddled on the back stoop, knuckles raw from knocking on and voice hoarse from calling through the door that still stood locked behind her, shriveling as the days and years passed with no answer.”

If words are powerful and a picture’s worth a thousand of them, then the pictures our words create must be exponentially stronger. I’ve carried many in my head over the years. The example above is one. Visualizations of emotion. Not always positive. Some are as bleak as anything Charles Dickens ever wrote.

But true.

It can be a healthy exercise to put your struggles into pictures. It clarifies feelings that are hard to express in words. Explains the battles you fight. And perhaps why you feel you’re always losing. It’s validating. “I’m not insane! Look where I’ve been!”

But if you’re not careful, it can also be extremely destructive.

While you’re appropriately acknowledging harsh truth, it’s equally vital to seek light in it. Or it will eat you alive.

Truth needs positive thought.

But not just any positive thought.

Thinking Truth Means Thinking Believable

I’ve escaped that lonely back stoop sometimes by imagining myself into a virtual field of daisies. Picturing my dreams come true. What it will be like when that locked door behind me finally opens.

There’s a place for this kind of positive thinking. In fact, it’s crucial. Visualizing where you want to be is just as powerful–and less prone to negativity–as visualizing where you are. Everyone needs a happy ending not just to look forward to but to skip ahead to and imagine tasting once in a while.

But until you’re actually living that happy ending, current circumstances will inevitably yank you back to the present. Back to the dreary picture. Where simply imagining a nicer one isn’t enough anymore.

You need a positive thought that can exist in this one as it is. Something believable. Not like a deceased aunt you poorly photoshopped into your Christmas card, which is essentially what you’d be doing if, instead of escaping to a field of daisies, you tried to imagine the back stoop was a field of daisies.

There’s a fine line between positivity and delusion.

What’s your ray of light if you can’t have daisies right now?

As I’ve shared in other posts, I found mine when the Savior walked into the picture, sat down beside me, and put his arm around me.

He’s believable in a dreary picture.

So when I imagine that back stoop now, it’s still a picture of struggle. But it’s also a picture of hope. A picture of a girl who’s still waiting, but in the company of a friend.

Replacing Bleak Images That Aren’t True

Some pictures aren’t true. They’re the worst. Because you can’t just shine positive thought on them. You have to erase and replace them. Truth has to fill the void or they’ll grow back.

Several years ago, after offering some particularly heartfelt petitions for a change of marital status, I found my faith trapped in an image of me standing before God with that prayer I’d written, and him looking back with eyes full of pity. Staring at me like he wished he could accept the prayer I held out, but there was nothing he could do for me.

That didn’t come out of nowhere. Years of unanswered prayer formed it and made it totally believable.

Yet somehow I knew that picture wasn’t of me and God. It stood between me and God. As true as it felt it could be, it didn’t feel true at all.

But I couldn’t replace it with something I made up just to make myself feel better. I couldn’t imagine away the pity or make his hand reach for my folded notebook pages. Because I didn’t know if that was true, either.

So the rest of the day, I prayed, If this picture isn’t true, what is true? If I actually stood in front of you and held out this prayer, what would you tell me?

I prayed that before I turned out the light that night, then my mind wandered to other things as I drifted to sleep. And then, with no prompting from me, a scripture pulled itself together.

“Your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.”

The true picture.

I haven’t seen those pitying eyes since.

Thinking Truth You Didn’t Just Invent

If the devil isn’t feeding us lies, he’s fueling the ones we tell ourselves. Anything that picks at our faith, erodes our hope, diminishes our worth. He monopolizes on it. Subtly. Most of the time he doesn’t even have to say much. He just asks the questions. And in our human weakness, we answer.

Here’s a few I expound on frequently. Sometimes rather melodramatically.

“Who’s going to want to look at this face across the breakfast table every morning?”

“If I died tomorrow, who would miss me?”

“Why has God abandoned me?”

“Why does God hate me?”

This is where you practice positive affirmations, right? Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and tell yourself, “I am beautiful. I am important. I am valued. I am loved.”

Nice words. If you can believe what you’re saying.

But how do you know those affirmations aren’t just a bunch of other lies?

Back to erasing that picture of God’s pitying eyes, you have to learn his truth. Not just what you want to be true, but what he says is true.

So, I find more comfort in these positive affirmations. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The worth of my soul is great in the sight of God. He knows the plans he has for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future. I am written on the palms of his hands.”

God’s word is both true and positive. Think of it when Satan plants his questions.

Think “It Is Written…”

This was Jesus’s whole defense when Satan tempted him in the wilderness.

Satan: “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”

Jesus: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Satan: “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”

Jesus: “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Satan, showing Jesus the kingdoms of the world: “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

Jesus: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

Get thee hence. I think Jesus was kind of done with that game. And so should we be.

There’s power in the words “it is written”. If you know what’s written. Satan does. That’s why memorizing scripture makes such a fantastic weapon.

In the face of anxiety: It is written, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

When you’re sick of waiting: It is written, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

When you grow a little proud (Satan doesn’t only tempt us to demean ourselves): It is written, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

You get the picture.

Hand the Brush Back

I’ve been, if not the queen, at least a queen of negative images. Satan paints the first stroke, hands me the brush, and I go to town. He doesn’t always start on a blank canvas, either. More often than not, he sets me painting great black strokes all over the masterpiece God is trying to paint. Twisting a perfect plan designed to teach me into a cruel plan that hates me.

But the more you know God, the more you know his word, the more you seek his face–the easier it is to hand that brush back. Or not accept it in the first place. To sit with Jesus on the stoop, or in the dark, or wherever the picture of your trials has placed you. Trust the plan that brought you there. And watch it unfold in peace. That’s what it’s like under the umbrella of positive truth and true positivity.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8

Thank you for reading. Whatever negativity you may be battling, I hope you’ve found some truth here to combat it. Please leave a comment and, as always, share this post with someone else it might bless.