The Lie That Kept You Stuck

The Lie That Kept You Stuck

— By M.T. Clark — P-2021, 07/21/2026 — Today’s Audio Podcast

Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of some wild winter cloud formations sweeping across a wide blue sky over a snow-covered cornfield comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this scene on Waite Road in Easton, NY, on March 7th, 2026.

Well, it’s Tuesday, and I’m sharing an old winter photo of mine because I still can’t get over the show the sky put on that day. March skies in upstate NY can be overcast and blah at times, but those wild ribbons of cloud decorating that blue sky stretching over a plain, snow-covered field just filled me with wonder and joy.

It’s a good reminder that God paints beauty over the bare and frozen seasons too, when the ground looks like nothing could grow. Not much about a harvested cornfield in the snow says “glory,” and yet there it was, right overhead. That one cloud formation looks like a face looking down, as if our heavenly Father above was checking in to see how I was doing.

When you see beauty in God’s creation, you have to remember that we are not alone. God made the earth for us, and if it delights us, we have to realize that it was a gift that He made for us to enjoy.  Any suggestion that we are all alone on earth is just another lie from the enemy meant to lead us astray. Speaking of lies…

Our series, “Freedom Stories,” continues today with the lie that keeps so many of us stuck.

The Lie That Kept You Stuck

Jesus tells us exactly where lies come from, and He doesn’t pull any punches. He tells it like it is about the world we live in. Speaking of the enemy, He says in John 8:44 (NKJV): “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

The devil is named here as the father of lies, which means deception is not merely one of his tactics among many. It is his native language. When he speaks a lie, Jesus says, he speaks from his own resources, out of his very nature, and this tells us something crucial about the lies we believe about ourselves.

The lies we believe didn’t originate with us, and they’re not just a realistic self-assessment said in humility. They are intentional lies meant to deny what Christ has done and to keep us from experiencing our freedom and fulfilling our purpose in God’s kingdom. Although some of the lies we believe may be something we have spoken over ourselves, or were words spoken over us by another person, many of them were authored by the enemy.

Behind every place I stayed stuck, there was a lie I had accepted as simple fact, a statement about myself that I never thought to question. “I’m a drunk. I will always be this way. There is something wrong with me. God may love me, but He’s probably not happy with me.” Those lies felt like honesty, even like humility, but they were chains, and they had an author. Learning to recognize his voice was one of the most freeing things that ever happened to me.

This is important for our freedom, because we’ll never resist a lie we’ve mistaken for the truth.

As long as I believed “I will always be this way” as a hard fact about my life, I had no reason to fight it, and so it quietly governed everything. The chain that holds us in bondage the longest is the one we don’t recognize as a chain.

The enemy knows this, which is why his deepest work is not tempting us into obvious sin, but is in getting us to believe something false about our identity, because a lie believed about who you are will shape your behavior more powerfully than any single temptation ever could.

So how do we tell the enemy’s lie from the truth?

We test everything we believe about ourselves against what God has said about us in His word.

The accuser’s lies almost always lead us toward condemnation, hopelessness, and isolation. These lies tell us that we are beyond help, that we should continually be ashamed of what we’ve done, and that we had better keep our problems and pasts to ourselves.

The Lord’s conviction, by contrast, is specific, hopeful, and always tethered to His grace. God’s words draw you toward Him rather than away.

When a thought tells you that you are worthless, beyond change, or finally disqualified, you are not hearing the voice of God about His child.  No matter how much it sounds like your own voice, you are hearing the father of lies, and you have every right in Christ to refuse it.

So, examine the thoughts and lies that have kept you stuck. Name them. Hold them up against the word of God. Hold them up against who God says you are.  Remember you are washed, sanctified, and accepted in the Beloved.  Reject any thought that tells you different.

You will often find that the thing you took as a plain fact about yourself was a lie from the enemy. You don’t have to keep believing it. The truth of who you are in Christ is stronger than the lie that has kept you captive, and the moment you stop agreeing with the liar, the chains begin to break.

Keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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