In the world of Christianity, there are many twisted truths about what the Bible says that are taught to Christians.
I've witnessed and heard a lot of biblically immaculate statements from people that are in leadership positions or influencing positions, so today I'm talking about five more lies that as believers of Jesus we shouldn't believe.
You can catch up on last week's post of this series right here!!
For the first lie, I'll be talking about anxiety.
1.Christians should never have anxiety.
Christians can have anxiety. We are all a work in progress, and many followers of Jesus deal with anxiety. You're not a false Christian if you've had anxiety.
In today's world, we are pressured from every angle daily from social media, community, inner thoughts, the news, and our devices that causes anxiety and stress constantly, so asking someone to never have an ounce of anxiety by their own strength is impossible.
Lots of people in the Bible dealt with fear, so you're not alone. Moses, David, and Martha are just a few of the people in the Bible that dealt with fear or anxiety more than once in their life.
”But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,“
-Luke 10:41
The belief that this makes Christians carry is that Jesus is mad if we're afraid, or he's disappointed in our lack of strength in ourselves to avoid fear. That we have to be fearless on our own, taking life by our own hands and handling it perfectly. But as followers of Jesus we cannot handle it all. In fact, no one can handle it on their own.
Jesus can take away our fear, and that means that sometimes, even believers will feel fear and anxiety. And that's nothing to judge or criticize others about.
Jesus is our answer to anxiety. We don't have to feel complete responsibility for constant peace in our lives. We can't hold it all together on our own or else we will be afraid at times, some more or less.
”When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.“ -Psalm 56:3
We can encourage others to beat fear with Jesus- not pressuring them into being stronger themselves.
This leads me into the next lie, which is very similar to the first one.
2. Christians can't or shouldn't have depression.
😐.
A lot of people have depression, including believers. Elijah was so depressed in the book of First Kings that he wanted to die. Instead of criticizing or punishing Elijah for the presence of depression in his life, he lovingly gave him a snack and a nap.
Right up there with anxiety, millions of people have depression, more than ever. The world causes mental illnesses with its darkness and again the answer is Jesus, not to judge or perfect people with depression.
Jesus doesn't want you to have depression, but in a sense that he will not judge or punish you for the presence of it and that he will walk with you through your depression, healing and loving on you.
You're not a false Christian if you have depression! Jesus died for you too!
3. "If God is walking you through this, it's because he knows you can handle it."
I used to believe this. We think so often that God strengthens us and then leaves us to conquer the world on our own, as if he is solely our supporter and we're the main character. But we're not.
We cannot do anything without Jesus- He is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:1-5).
God can strengthen us to walk through harder seasons, but this is by him and his strength, not our own. As broken and sinful people, we cannot make it without God. We're imperfect.
It's ok to need God more and more the more we age, and what a beautiful statement to tell people that the only reason you got through a season or hardship was because of God!
Sometimes God will walk you through something that you couldn't have made it out without him so that you can see his power and glory and tell it to others.
"My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness." -2 Corinthians 12
4. Christians shouldn't have to tithe.
With complete respect, a person is better off giving ten percent to the Lord weekly than not giving anything to him at all. We are called to give what we can to God.
Well, how much should we give? What if I barely have any money?
One of my favorite passages in the gospels is when Jesus sees a woman give a few coins to tithe. He witnesses the crowd making fun of her as they are giving what seems like a wealthy and popular amount, and Jesus recognizes her tithe just as much as theirs (Mark 12:42-44).
We are commanded to give cheerfully to the Lord, what we want to give to him.
"The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." -2 Corinthians 9:6-7
God wants us to take care of the church and give back to Him, and he promises to take care of us as we do this. Everything comes from God, so we shouldn't withhold from Him and His church.
5. Christianity is only for certain ethnicities and races.
A lot of people think that Jewish people are God's only people, or that the "Bible Belt" has God's favorite Christians, leaving other people out of the truth of the gospel and making them feel lonely.
God loves everyone in the world the same (John 3:16) and doesn't favor anyone over others!
"For there is no partiality with God," -Romans 2:11
I think that Christians in the areas believed to be the favorite spots for Christianity don't stop other people from being introduced to the gospel, but others can definitely feel left out based on where they're from, or not in the close circle or cliques in churches or groups. This leaves some people thinking that they don't belong in the body of Christ and that they wouldn't make a difference in others' lives because the world has deemed them not as important.
This is a lie. God loves Africans. God loves Europeans. God loves the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Arabs, and everyone else on this planet. As followers of Jesus, it is not our race or where we come from that places our value in Jesus' eyes. Let's love everyone the same as Jesus does, and it place more importance on certain people as opposed to others.
”For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”“
-Romans 1:16-17 ESV
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