The Lies We Believe

By Suzie Hardy
Guest Contributor
Recovery for Life
Transition Homes for Hope

Isaiah 28:15-18 reads: You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place." So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: "See I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie and water will overflow your hiding place. Your covenant with death will be annulled, your agreement with the grave will not stand."

As we are in this journey of recovery we see these verses played out. It says, "you boast." We took pride in our addiction. We deceived ourselves to the point of boasting in our escapades. This passage goes on to say that in our boasting we "made a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement." I am sure we could look back through our lifetime of dealing with addiction and can see that we cheated death on numerous occasions. If it is not a certain death, it might be the slow death from the abuse we put our bodies through that would kill us eventually.

The last part of the next verse states "for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place" Wow!!!! I believe that lies and falsehood are the basis and one of the largest reasons we use addictive things in the first place. The enemy uses lies he tells us about ourself to keep us in bondage.  Some examples of lies we believe and tell ourselves is "Nobody cares about me", "I am not important", "I am not worthy"; "No one cares", "I will never get better", "I am such a loser", and many more. It is so interesting that this verse says we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place. Many times believing the lies Satan sends our way is a comfortable place to be. Anything new looks odd and sometimes intimidating because we have been in this safe place (so to speak) so long. These lies stem from some event in our past and took root in our lives. God can heal those lies if we ask him. He can show us the truth and take away the pain.

In answer to taking refuge in lies, he states: "The Sovereign Lord says... " The answer is found in our Sovereign Lord. God says He has a stone, a precious stone - a chief Cornerstone... we know that is JESUS!!! The answer is Jesus - our stone, a precious stone, a chief cornerstone. He then says "the one who trusts will never be dismayed." That can be us. If we trust in the stone, the tested stone, the chief cornerstone, which is Jesus, we will never be dismayed and all the things he mentioned earlier will be taken care of.

Let's walk in righteousness and justice and in the light of the one who can be trusted and comes to our aid. Justice will be the measuring stick. Righteousness will be the standard. The lie, our refuge, will be swept away. Falsehood will be washed away. We can have freedom in Christ.

Ephesians 3:20 says: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...

God is able to do more than we can imagine. He can and will work in our lives.

Suzie Hardy serves as ministry leader and event coordinator for Recovery for Life and Transition Homes for Hope ministries in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She has a heart to see lives transformed by the power of Jesus Christ and brought from despair and bondage into hope and freedom. She speaks and writes for the glory of God.