The Worst Advice I've Ever Received.

"Follow.Your. Heart." 

In our American Dream culture, we are all about "chasing our dreams", the "pursuit of happiness", "climbing to the top", "being our best self", and "following our heart". I use the " " because these are typical sayings that we hear often. In fact, we hear them so often, we have failed to realize that every single one of them is a lie. A lie about what the meaning of life is, a lie about where we are able to find satisfaction, and a lie about how we ought to make decisions. We are being lied to. They are feel good lies and after all, don't we want to feel good? It feels good to feel good. 

Raised up in a generation where happily ever afters are as real as the food on my plate, I bought into the lies that:

1. I deserve a happily ever after and not only that but a perfect prince charming.

2. If I follow my heart, I will always make the right decision.

3. True fulfillment, satisfaction and security comes from marriage.

4. Success is defined by the dollars in my pocket and the number on the scale.

5. Beauty is attainable if I just work hard enough. 

6. My goal in life is to be happy.

7. I need my husband, my friends, and my family to love me and if they don't, or I perceive that they don't, my worth is devalued.

8. Emotions/Feelings can be trusted.

9. My value comes from what I can do.

10. My identity is found in my job, hobbies and talents. 

The lies could go on and and on and on. We are heavily influenced by the society and culture that we are raised in, it shapes us whether we want it to or not. Life happens around us and infiltrates our thoughts and beliefs. No matter how excellent our parents are, no matter how many times they tell us that beauty comes from the heart, the world continuously tells us otherwise and let's be honest, it's much easier to believe what we can see, hear, touch and taste as oppose to God's word which is intangible.

Who is telling us these lies? Is it our government? Is it our teachers? Is it our parents? Is it our spouses? 

No.

We can trace it back to the first lie ever told by Satan disguised as that crafty serpent... "Eat the apple". "God didn't mean what he said. You won't die {spiritually}. God is holding out on you. He doesn't want you to know everything he knows. Eat the apple". Satan may change his lies around a bit, but he's using the same material. At the root, these are still the same lies we believe today. 

-God's ways are too restrictive and outdated, they don't apply to me. {This is Satan telling us that God is holding out on us and our entitlement to happiness}

-I know better than God. {This is Satan telling us that true wisdom comes from ourselves and that we don't need God}

-I cannot be happy if I live the way God wants me to. {This is Satan telling us that the purpose of life is to be happy, not holy}

Satan's number one goal: to keep us dependent on ANYONE and/or ANYTHING but God. (Idols)

Satan's number one tactic: deceit. 

Satan is smarter than we ever give him credit for. I am not sure if we think that Satan and his demons are a thing of the past and don't apply to our culture today, but we are oh. so. wrong. Satan is smart in his ways and is still alive and well in our world today. The thing that is so smart about deceiving is that is just it! We don't know that we are being deceived! Do you think he tells us lies that are obvious? No way. He tells us lies that are easy on the ears. Lies that are easy to swallow. Lies that don't send "red flags" to our spirt and soul.  The lies that he tells us make us feel good like "follow your heart", "believe in yourself", "you need to love yourself" (as if we don't already love and think of ourselves too much already), "work harder and you will achieve everything you deserve". Maybe he tells us half-truths and half-lies, he twists the truth jusssssst enough to where there is just a hint of a lie in it. The outcome is all the same to him...to keep us distracted from Truth and dependent on ourselves or really anything but God. Satan doesn't have to get us to have an affair, he just has to get us to dwell on someone besides our spouse and gain emotional or mental satisfaction from their relationship. Satan doesn't have to get us to murder, he just has to get us to hold a deep sense of resentment towards someone. Satan doesn't have to get us to tell a bold face lie, he just has to get us to omit the full truth or to manipulate it and bend it to our advantage. 

Do you see what is happening? Our culture, our government, our teachers, our parents, our spouses, our children have swallowed these lies hook line and sinker. We have swallowed these lies. The worst part is we have no clue that we have a gigantic hook in our throats. These lies have become our new truths.

Here are gender specific examples of how Satan's lies have become so second nature to us that we have failed to see the deception in them.

Many men believe that their top priority and purpose is to succeed at work and many times they completely abandon their responsibility of loving and leading their families. {Do you see how Satan has slightly twisted this? God made man to work the fields. It is man's innate desire, responsibility and design to work to provide for his family. Satan has manipulated this desire in man to where work has become their sole purpose and desire in life. Work has become an idol that they worship.}

Many women believe that they need to be respected and valued by society and the only way to gain that respect and sense of worth is to abandon their responsibility of taking care of their husband, children and home and to achieve those things by throwing themselves into their career. Deep in their hearts many women believe that staying at home is of lesser value than all of the "accomplishments" that they can achieve out in the "real world". I know this one is true of women because I use to believe it! {Satan is at work again!} Ever since the feminist movement in the 60's and 70's women now have adopted this ideology that since they have the right to work, vote, make decisions about their bodies ect... that it is also their right to neglect their homes. Now, hear what I am not saying... I am not saying that it is wrong for women to work... I work outside of the home part time and I find a lot of enjoyment in what I do! What I am saying is that our first priority as women of God should be to take care of our homes, husbands, and children. Taking care of our homes is taking care of our husbands and children. Work should fall in line after that. I am not ignorant to the financial demands placed on most women today such as women who financially have to work full time to support families, or women who are single moms. I was raised by a single mom most of my life who worked her tail off to provide for me. It is really more about our motive behind our desire to pursue our careers above our families that I am talking about. Again, I've been guilty of this very thing with my career, my schooling and even my hobbies. Are we looking to these things to bring us sole satisfaction? Are we looking to these things to give us our sole sense of purpose and identity? Is our joy based on our circumstances surrounding these things?

It seems that the pendulum has swung so hard the other way that many women now believe that being "at home" and "in the kitchen" is disrespectful to women everywhere. This breaks my heart. We are missing the joy found in living in the ways that the Lord has called us to by believing Satan when he tell us that true satisfaction is found in our achievements and that we deserve more out of life. Because of that, our marriages are left starving for the attention and care that they desperately need and deserve. Satan is yet again robbing us of the true fulfillment found in being obedient to the responsibilities that we have a women.

Here are three truths that we need to know:

Satan is alive and well and at work in our lives and in our marriages.

"We know that we are children of God, and that he whole world is under the control of the evil one." 

1 John 5:19

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9

"Follow my heart"? No thanks.

Here is our hope:
"But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won the victory over those people {people who are against Christ}, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world." 1 John 4:4

I am not ignorant to think that this will be a feel good or popular post. It is my hope that through writing this that even a mere aspect of Satan's deception would be exposed and therefore lose the stronghold that it currently has in our hearts and minds. The Lord is continuously revealing to me lie after lie that I have been believing and living my life from. 

We live what we believe. What lies are you believing?