It all began with a beginning. Everything that happens in this world, we can say, stems from that. God created us to live with Him forever as His beloved children, in paradise. But sadly, because of satan, we were cast out. We wanted to be like God, we listened to a voice that lied to us, and because of that, we were banished from paradise.
This story starts with satan, who used a small voice to deceive Eve. He said, “Are you sure about what God told you? Did He really say that? He is hiding something better from you.” And Eve believed him. The problem is, this story hasn’t changed. The enemy is still here, still present, working in our lives since we were children. That’s when he attacks us the most, when we are innocent and vulnerable. It is at that age that the enemy shapes us with lies and subtle rephrasing. And these lies end up shaping our view of the world. When we grow up, we sometimes realize that everything we knew was based on lies. Ok, maybe not everything, but a big part of our perception is distorted.
Genesis 3:1-6 :
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’? ” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye…”
The enemy knows how to flatter us. He knows our weaknesses and how to seduce us, how to make us believe lies. He was there from the beginning, and he knows things we don’t even know. We’re ignorant, and it’s easy for him to trick us. He speaks in a way that makes us believe his words, especially when it comes from people who are close to us: our parents, our teachers, our friends. Those who love us, but who also have their own wounds and lies that they unconsciously pass on. So we end up playing his game without even realizing it. We find ourselves teaching these lies to others, to our children, our friends, and so on.
That’s why it is so important to renew our minds, as Romans 12:2 says:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
It is a constant process of renewal through God’s word, so that our minds are transformed and no longer hold onto the lies.
Let me tell you a story. My best friend has a little girl whose friends were threatened by another boy at school. She wasn’t there, but she heard what happened from her friends. She didn’t mention it to her mother at first, until the mother received a call from another mother to talk about it. When my friend asked her daughter about it, she said everything was fine, but the more her mom asked her questions, the more she opened up. She began expressing her fear, panicking about it, crying, and saying she wanted to change schools. But her mom took the time to pray for her with her, reminding her that God was with her, and that she had nothing to fear. That conversation helped renew her mind and replace fear with truth. The next day, the little girl was calm, reassured, and no longer wanted to change schools.
It’s important to understand that this little girl had internalized this fear without realizing it. She had pushed aside what troubled her, thinking it wasn’t a big deal, because it didn’t happen to her directly, but the fear was there, buried. When her mom insisted on understanding, she was able to express what she was feeling, which allowed her to deal with the fear and replace the lie with the truth.
Many of us don’t have this chance. We don’t realize the number of things we experience and lies we believe that impact our lives deeply. It’s essential to come before God and ask Him to show us what’s wrong in our minds. We need to be aware of the lies and fears that shape us and prevent us from living in the truth.
The enemy is subtle; he often speaks to us without us knowing, slipping lies that feed our fears. But if we seek God and ask Him to renew our minds, we’ll be freed from the lies that imprison us. We have to remember that our identity is in Him, in the truth He tells us, not in the lies of the enemy.
My own life began with lies, pain, and loss. I believed I wasn’t important, that I was insignificant. I had lost what mattered most to me, and all I had left was myself. That’s when I searched for a solution. But my solution came from a broken spirit, a traumatized mind, and it wasn’t a viable solution. This protection mechanism we create when going through a hard time can save us in the moment, but it’s not meant to last. What once protected us can become a prison over time. Eventually, we realize we’re still in that prison, not knowing how to get out.
It was through books, at first, that God spoke to me. One day, I came across a book called Running on Empty, which spoke about my situation, about what I had been through, about how I had created a defense mechanism to survive. That book opened my eyes to the emotional neglect I had experienced as a child. Thanks to that book, I understood why I felt the way I did as an adult. It made me realize that the defense mechanism I had created to survive was stopping me from truly living. Before that I used to think that if a psychologist could study me every day, maybe they would detect what was wrong with me, because I knew something was wrong without knowing what exactly. And then that book came into my life. It explained everything to me. That’s when I realized that, all this time while I was suffering internally, there was an answer in a book. I thought, “This is God sending me this book because it answered what I was searching for.” The book touched on points I thought were impossible to reach. It was a new healing for me.
I became aware that my problem came from suppressing my emotions. Since childhood, I had learned to suppress my feelings to protect myself. This survival mechanism became an inner prison. I had stopped feeling, stopped living my emotions. I understood that I needed to start doing inner work, learning to feel my emotions and express them.
But once again, I wanted to do things my way out, thinking the key was within me. I set out on a quest for “inner well-being.” I thought I had to find self-love, the strength within myself to overcome it all. The world was telling me that all the answers were inside me, that I had to fill the gaps from my childhood on my own. I looked in books, in practices like meditation, in everything that seemed to help me feel again and feel alive. Soon enough I was into New Age thinking rituals like meditation or what-not would help me fill what I had lost. I believed it would reconnect me with myself and make me feel more alive. That’s when God said, “I won’t lose you again, my daughter”. I started seeing signs of His presence.
Because, I thought that God allowing me to find that book, it was Him telling me, “Here is your problem now fix it”. But He just shows you what is wrong, so that He can fix it, He was the One who had the answers, not me. I couldn’t fix anything by my own strength. Only He could heal me and show me the way to healing. He alone could erase the lies I had believed my whole life, and fill the emptiness of the love I lacked. He alone has everything I need.
We often get lost in our ignorance. We search for solutions everywhere else, but in Him, thinking that we have to do it all by ourselves. And it makes sense because that’s what the culture teaches us. They came up with “god helps those who help themselves” which is wrong, or at least not in the way the culture present it. Our God didn’t create us to figure it out on our own. It’s in Him that we find what we lack. But the enemy knows exactly where to trick us. When we don’t know God, we don’t realize He is the One who can help and heal us. We think God should work like we do, as if we have to solve our problems logically, on our own. But the more we turn away from Him to seek answers for ourselves, the more we get lost in a never-ending loop-hole.
Proverbes 3:5-6 says,
“Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understating; in ALL your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Isaiah 41:10 says,
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Once God opens our eyes, walking with Him becomes so beautiful. He transforms us, even through trials, and the fruits of that transformation are incomparable. It’s hard sometimes, but every step is worth it. The healing, peace, and love we find in Him are what truly complete us.
Glory to God for His faithfulness and unchanging love. Amen.
Fille d’Epiphaniya
My Epiphany 
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