Think of Gideon. When the Angel of the Lord appeared, He said in Judges 6:12, “…The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Then in verse 14 He said, “…Go in this might of  yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

I want to backtrack. Where was Gideon when the Lord found him? Verse 11 says that he was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Notice that the Lord called him the opposite of what he believed he was.

His view of himself was stated in verse 15. He said, “…O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” God chose one who saw himself differently than the Lord did. Isn’t that true of us?

When what we believe about ourselves does not line up with Scripture, then we have believed a lie. I recently had a mentee write, “What makes you so sure that I’ve adopted wrong beliefs about myself? To me they are true. And I think that if you get to know me more then you will start to agree.”

Could you hear her lie? The Lord knows everything about us and He loves us unconditionally. The lies we have believed come from one who hates everyone that follows Jesus. We need to refute the lies and affirm the truth of what the Lord says, and not go by how we feel towards ourselves.