Brad Ruggles can be found messing around at http://www.bradruggles.com.

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I’M A PRETTY GOOD LIAR
I’d like to think that I’m a pretty honest, straightforward person. If you ask me, I’ll generally tell you what I think. I especially try to be open and transparent on my blog where I hit topics that some may consider controversial head on.

But the truth of the matter is that many times I’m far from truthful. I can spin stories with the best of them. I can stretch the truth and exaggerate the details. I lie to and hurt the worst person of all – myself.

The simple truth is that I’m an expert at lying to myself.

Through the years I’ve grown accustomed to telling myself half-truths and, even worse, believing them. Perhaps you know the kind of lies I’m talking about.

*I don’t have what it takes to be successful
*I’m not ‘hip’ enough or ‘cool’ enough to run with that crowd
*I’m not a good father/husband
*I have to hide who I really am for people to like me

These small lies and half-truths are some of the worst falsehoods we can tell because we’re deceiving ourselves. We’re choosing to believe something that isn’t true about the one person on this planet we know better than anyone. We allow the seeds of deceit to take root and grow until our minds become a jungle of lies that prevent us from seeing the truth – the truth about what our Creator says about us.

We each have the God-given power to make those lies become reality. What starts out as a complete lie, when believed, can soon grow into reality.

Alexander Pope, in his Essay on Man said it this way,

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is man.
Plac’d on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confus’d;
Still by himself abus’d or disabus’d;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

I’m constantly amazed that God created us with the amazing ability to manifest the reality of what we believe. This will that he created us with allows us to choose what we believe – not only about God and other people, but most importantly about our self.

What are you choosing to believe about yourself? Does it line up with what God says about you? Are you buying into the lies you’re telling yourself hook, line and sinker?

Take some time in the next couple of days and ask yourself if you’re believing less that what God says about you. Recognize the lies you’ve believed and replace them with the truth.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)