The Choice is Yours: Truth or Lies

“Put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the schemes of the devil” - Ephesians 6:11

Being an athlete of any kind can be difficult and takes you through many challenges along the journey. Playing a sport competitively takes a toll both physically on your body and mentally on your mind and thoughts. From the time I began playing volleyball in fourth grade, I have been faced with the decision of who and what I choose to listen to. In today’s world, we are faced with so many obstacles throughout each day, and this causes us to become distracted and start to listen to lies.

We as humans have the choice to decide if we will listen to the lies of the enemy or to the truth that Jesus Christ tells us.

As I grew in my volleyball journey and started playing in college, the lies just seemed to get louder and louder in my head. It seemed as if the more I was trying to do the right thing, work hard, and shine Christ’s light, the more the enemy wanted to put a stop to the plans the Lord had for me. I don’t know about you, but I hear the thoughts of: “You will never be good enough”, “You cannot do this”, and “You will never succeed”, in my head a lot while playing volleyball.

While in college as I’ve been growing in my walk with the Lord, I have learned that I do not have to listen to these thoughts, and I can overcome them and thrive with the plan that is set before me. My mom always says, “You may hear the enemy, but you do not have to listen to him”.

Guys, I am here to tell you that even though Satan can seem so powerful, our God is so much greater! God wants us to remember that He loves us unconditionally and with Him we are unstoppable. And I want to remind you that the enemy only comes to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:18), so each negative thought that makes you feel unworthy may be stemming straight from the lies of the enemy. Satan uses many tools when it comes to trying to distract us and lose our focus on truth.

In today’s world, social media plays a big role in feeding our minds with these lies. Comparison is the thief of joy, and social media can allow us to fix our focus on other’s success, beating ourselves down because we feel like we aren’t good enough. If you are reading this right now, and can relate to hearing the enemy lying to you, I want to tell you that:

YOU are worthy, YOU are beautiful, YOU are loved, and most importantly YOU have a God who is far greater than we can imagine and by focusing on him you will get to witness the perfect plan he has for you.

In the book of Ephesians it talks about how we will be faced with the enemy and gives us ways to attack the enemy head on. Ephesians 6:11 says, “Put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the schemes of the devil”. My encouragement to you is to make the choice to focus on God’s truth and that He is for you! Go out there and shine today!!

Campbell Bowden

My name is campbell, some people call me soup, I am nineteen years old from El Paso, Texas. I am a Christ follower, and truly trying to live my life to learn to be more like jesus. I play volleyball for Baylor University and am majoring in Kinesiology. My passion is working with kids, and showing them Christs love.