Addison Crissone

In this world, the Devil will try and put some disgraceful, discouraging and ultimately untrue labels on us.
And his labels are lies disguised behind a veil of truth that tricks us into believing them.
They have just enough truth that we are blind to the actual lie that  he is telling us. 
Satan’s tactics can come in various forms and in diverse manners, depending on who you are.
Here are some examples of his lies in my life:

1. I am not enough

2. I am not beautiful/worthy

3. What am I even doing this for?

4. I don’t have to read my Bible

5. I am a failure

6. Who is going to listen to me?

And my personal favorite, 

       7. No one cares, so I might as well give up

Can you relate?
The lies are different for all of us, and they change with the seasons of our lives, but I think that just about everyone can find something to relate to in these few lies listed above.
But I want to show you how Satan’s lies truly work.
Look at the first one-
I am not enough.
We have all been there, done that, said it, and believed it.
But look close, do you see the lie buried in the truth?
I’ll be honest; there is a lot of truth in this lie, even for the Devil, the father of lies.
We are not enough.
That is just a fact that few are willing to face nowadays.
We as simple Human Beings often fail when it comes to sin and evil, and are not enough in ourselves to inherit the Kingdom of God.
But Jesus is.
That is the side of the story that Satan does not want you to know, so he just doesn’t speak of it at all.
He wants to manipulate us and discourage us into believing that we have to be enough, and so therefore pressuring us to either believe in ourselves by pride or fall face-first into a heap of self-pity.
The Devil may even whisper in your ear,
“You are not enough.”
But listen close, and you may hear another voice rise above the Devil’s- it may be small and still, but it is there.
“But I am,” Jesus whispers.
God loved us so much that He didn't just spare his only son, but allowed Him to die for the ransom of many.
Jesus died for us.
Jesus was enough when he died on the cross to pave the way for us in Heaven, He was enough to rip the barrier between us and God the Father in two, and He was enough to rise again on the third day.
Were we enough to conquer all of this?
Simply put; No.
But Jesus is.

Another lie that I believe we fall prey to the identity trap, where we are left asking the same question-
“Who am I?”
The people of this generation of today’s world are searching at a break-neck pace for the truth of identity.
But in our endless cycles of seeking purpose, fulfillment, and identity, we have actually lost sight of the thing that gives us all of these things, and more.
We have lost sight of who we are, and the Devil wants us to look at the world for the answer.
Look in 1 John 3:1 instead:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
(NIV)

The Devil wants us to forget the truth that we are all sons and daughters of the perfect Father.
Lavish means to ‘expend or bestow with profusion’.
He has lavished his endless love upon us, bestowing on us all the title of Child of the King. 
This is what Satan wants to keep hidden- that God loves us so much that he has given us his love and extended to us the free gift of salvation through His son.

In this the love of God was made manifest among us,
That God sent his only son into the world, so that we might
Live through Him. in this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4: 9-10
(ESV)

This is the love of the Father!
God’s love set a rescue plan in place for you and me, not because we deserved it, but because of his great love for us.
Do you believe it?
Satan is the father of Lies.
But God is the Father of Love.
Can you hear him calling to you right now as you read these words, the small whisper, the small string perhaps, in your heart?
Is He rising above the Devil’s lies about you and restoring your soul with his message of love and grace?
I pray He is. 

In closing my friends and fellow Crist-followers, I want to tell you the secret the Devil doesn't want you to know:

You are a child of the most High God.
He is a son of the Father.
And she is her Father’s daughter.
We are all children of the perfect Father.

Scripture:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been
Born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has 
been born of him.

       -1 John 5:1