Your Brain is Lying to You: 7 Lies that Separate You from Your Identity in Jesus
Did you know your brain is not a reliable narrator?
In fact, every single one of us has a brain that’s not telling the truth.
When I first met the Lord, I was in a lot of pain, suffering in isolation as an atheist in Death Valley. And then because of God, the scales started to fall off my eyes. I began to see the world differently through the lens of Jesus, and I realized that if I had been wrong about Jesus for so long, then there must be a lot of other lies I’ve believed my whole life!
Can you relate? Have you ever believed something so ardently only to find out later it was false?
How Negativity Bias Affects Your Perspective
Your brain makes sense of the world through two things: your experiences and your heart’s interpretation of these experiences (memories). This creates neurons in your brain that are like a memory bank of your life story.
As humans, our brains have a built-in threat detection system (so we don’t run into a busy street—thank you, Lord!!). And that’s a good thing. But as humans disconnected from God’s mind, we also have a negativity bias that pulls us to cling to negative experiences. Left unchecked, focusing on the negative leads to a gloomy view of everything: experiences, relationships, health, future plans, goals, life, etc. And that affects our heart’s interpretation of our experiences.
God created this alert system in the brain (namely made up of the amygdala and limbic system) to keep us safe from legitimate harm. But unfortunately, the enemy is aware of this system and has used it to fill our minds with fear. When our minds are unrenewed and steeped in negativity bias, the threat detection system in the brain is fed.
Here’s how the enemy hijacks the limbic system and implants worry:
We make assumptions rooted in fear instead of the reality of Jesus and His promises.
We draw conclusions from these assumptions without considering the truth of God’s word.
We reinforce fear-based pathways through lies of the enemy, cultural influence and our relationships.
We think and speak negative language over ourselves, impacting our memories. (Curious to learn more? Check out this study about how word choice affects your view of the world.)
When you give your mind over to the patterns of the world, you become a slave to your negative thoughts. Eventually they lock you down into a thinking pattern that creates stress and anxiety while preventing growth.
The science is clear: we have a universal stress response that becomes personal, a part of us, when we infuse our own history and narrative into it. You can either move towards growth, broadening your awareness of God and truth. Or you can narrow down into the survival route, the one that takes you toward darkness, bondage and destruction. There’s no inbetween here. We’re all slaves to whomever we obey. Jesus vs Satan. Love vs Fear. Light vs Dark.
When your thinking pattern is locked in fear, that’s a stronghold. And it’s not from God. As you filter the world through negative thought patterns, your brain will convince you that the lies are actually true (called cognition errors).
Seven Common Lies
Thankfully, the enemy isn’t very creative when it comes to throwing fiery darts at us. Once you recognize the patterns, you’ll be better equipped to recognize the lie and replace it with God’s truth. Each of the lies below shares a common goal to keep you from growing or experiencing the life God has planned for you.
Which ones can you see in yourself?
Blowing it up: you make the problem more significant than it is—often imagining the absolute worst is about to occur—forgetting what Christ has done.
Black or white: you view everything as always great or always lousy with no in-between.
Negativity bias: you give no weight to a positive point of view, discounting everything with a “Yeah, but…” perspective. You fixate on the negative.
Perfectionism: you focus on what you consider your flaws and minimize your strengths. You get stuck in your own unrighteousness instead of accepting God’s gift of righteousness by grace through Jesus.
Negative label: you describe yourself harshly, focusing on small aspects of yourself that contribute to a negative narrative.
Other people focus: you tell yourself what other people are thinking about you—always in the most negative of ways.
Victimization: you blame others, including the devil or even God, for everything that happens, seeing yourself as the victim.
How do you debunk the lies?
Now that we’ve uncovered the lies, let’s talk about rebuilding the dam. We need to replace the lies with the truth, God’s truth. When you do this over and over again—catch the lie, stop it, backfill with His truth—you will rewire your brain to new thought patterns.
Acknowledge | Accept that your thoughts aren’t always correct. Learn to discern whether your thought is true or false based on what Jesus says.
Curiously observe | Practice noticing your thoughts without judgment throughout your day. Ask yourself, “Is this thought, emotion or behavior coming from the Way of Jesus Christ?”
Think intentionally | When you recognize a lie, immediately agree with God and correct the error. Remind yourself you already have victory over this thought, emotion or behavior through the power of the Holy Spirit in you.
Self-compassion | Be actively kind to yourself. By purposefully engaging in self-care activities, you’ll reshape your brain’s lies about yourself.
In the beginning, learning to recognize when your brain is lying to you may be a bit challenging. That’s why it’s important you get into a daily habit of retraining your brain towards a narrative that comes from God. Consistent practice including directed visualizations using robust brain retraining tools will make it easier for you to be a curious observer of your thoughts—and catch when your brain is lying to you.
It’s hard work! But when you focus your imagination in the right direction, identifying and uprooting lies becomes easier. Each day you build on your work from the day before—and soon your brain’s structure and function will change. You’ve got this!!
Real healing and freedom is possible using God’s word with brain retraining techniques. But you don’t have to go it alone. If you could use a helping hand with brain rewiring, I’d love to come alongside you with 1:1 coaching or one of my group programs. Just reach out to me at info@breakatrin.com to get started.