If someone tells a lie about you, what is your reaction? Indignation? Denial? An intense desire to correct it and make sure the facts are known? No doubt, the response would be vigorous on all possible fronts.
But what about the lies that we tell ourselves? Because each of us is spiritual, created in the image of God, any perceived imperfection is a lie. “I’m poor.” “I’m depressed.” “I’m sick.” “I’m afraid.” While someone else could never persuade me to believe a lie about myself, “I” can be pretty convincing. Because our own thoughts seem less like lies, they don’t necessarily provoke the same kind of urgent response to correct them. We may not even realize that we are telling lies to ourselves.
Christ Jesus, the master Christian, certainly knew the difference between a truth and a lie. As he traveled from one place to another, many of those he met along the way appeared to be sick or diminished in some way. Because he saw them differently, healing resulted. Jesus saw them as God sees His creation—spiritual, strong, pure, perfect. He refused to believe the lies about them—that they were suffering, poor, helpless. Since Jesus understood the truth about his fellow man, he was able to uplift their thoughts and lives spiritually, and this healed them. Through the action of the Christ on their thought, their wholeness and perfection as God’s idea became evident. There are many examples of this in the Bible.
