Join me as I expand my earlier post, “Imposter Syndrome.” If you missed it, be sure to read it. Some of us have believed imposter-lies in three broad areas. These include believing that others are sinless and thus better than us, that God cannot cleanse us of our past sins, and that we are a burden to God and others. Let’s see how we can learn to resist the imposter-syndrome that tells us God and others would reject us if they knew our true nature.
God can help us to replace this false belief that was often planted by harmful people who convinced us we were not as good as others. When we believed them we decided others were better than us and nearly sinless. Yet now we need to find godly friends to help us replace that lie with the truth. But how do we even know which part of our thinking is wrong and which part is true? We must bring our thoughts to the Lord and also to safe, trustworthy people who love us enough to affirm the Biblical truths we are studying. We need to remove the lie that tells us we alone sin and others never or rarely sin or their sins are not as bad as our sins (Isaiah 64:4, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up, and like the wind our sin sweeps us away.”) Then we must see our sin and recognize that others are tempted and sin too. We are completely right when we say we are sinners and have nothing to earn our salvation. The Scriptures confirm this is true (Ephes.2:8-9.) When we say we are often tempted to sin and fall into sin so easily we have also spoken truth (Galations 5:17, “The flesh lusts against the spirit , and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things you wish.”) When we say we are corrupt in our sin nature, we’ve spoken truth (Jer. 17:9, “The human heart is desperately wicked.”) But when we say we are bad and unlike others for being so tempted, we deny the truth that temptations are common for all humans, ( 1Cor. 10: 13“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”)
Next we must remove the lie that we are unredeemable and that God will keep reminding us of our past life with its old sins (Isaiah 43:25, “I am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”) If we say we will never change, we are wrong, (2 Cor. 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new is here.”) If we say we are a hopeless cause, we are wrong. God can and does want to redeem us (Ezekiel 36:26-27, “and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”) So we must see God’s goodness and honor his ability to redeem us, cleanse us and truly forget our sins.
Over and over in Scripture God reminds us he has the power to change us. No one can snatch us (as forgiven people) from his hands, because no one is more powerful than God (John 10:28-30, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”) We must believe that God’s forgiveness and cleansing is complete (Philippians 1:6, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”)
Then we must remove the lie that says God only tolerates us and has to love us as some kind of burden. Plenty of humans thought that way about us, but they were not speaking truthfully about God when they told us the lie that we were a burden and hard to love. Instead let us replace it with the truth that God delights in us and made us well. Then we can meditate on God’s excellent job of making us so well and of adoring us so much, (Psalm 139:13-14, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”) We can reject the lie that says we are unlovable because we are bad. God loves sinners (Romans 5:8, “God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”) God did not need to love us, but he chose us, just like he chose Israel, (Deut.7:7-8, “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, because you were the smallest of nations. But it was because the Lord chose you and loved you…”)
Furthermore, God gave us distinct personalities, just like he gave animals distinct characteristics from the ostrich’s long legs, to the giraffe’s long neck, to the elephant’s long trunk, to the small size of humming birds and lady bugs. Do all people like all animals? No, and in the same way, some people will reject us, because of our personality. But remember, some people don’t even believe different people have different personalities. Some people are intolerant of anyone being different from them, and they will say others are wrong, even though God made many differences in people, due to their personalities. But the intolerance, impatience, and judgment of others is their own fault. We must not let this entice us to fall back into our imposter belief.
It is true that God is constantly working on us (disciplining us) to soften the rough sides of our personalities (anything in us that is selfish and contrary to God’s goodness.) But God is not trying to change the personalities he gave to each of us. We please God just by being who we are as we love him, (John 16:27, “The Father loves you, because you have loved me and believe I came from God.”) As we search the Scriptures, God reminds us that he knows how he made us (Job 10:11-12, “You clothed me with skin and flesh, and you knit my bones and sinews together. You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love. My life was preserved by your care.”) He delights in having made us that way (Psalm 18:19, “He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me, because he delighted in me.” And Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you; he will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”) God knows us by name, because he knows and loves us as individuals, (“…I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.” Exodus 33:17b.) He wants us to know we can heal from the Imposter Syndrome.
When we begin to understand ourselves as fellow sinners, no better and no worse than others with a great God who is fully capable of forgiving and cleansing us, then we can accept God’s adoration of us. We can see ourselves as desired treasures of God, even as he told the Israelites he felt this way about them (Hosea 9:10, “When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your people long ago, it was like seeing the early fruit on a fig tree.”) Yet God loves us, the Gentiles too (Romans 15:10b, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; and also praise the Lord, all you nations, for though your righteous is like fine sand, his righteous endures forever.”) God has always wanted us, even before time began (Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”)
The imposter Syndrome is but one of many lies Satan, the world, and our flesh uses against us. As we grow in our faith, God will continue to reveal lies we may still believe and then help us overcome them, as he can with our imposter syndrome.
This false belief may still nag us at times (as it does me) but we can choose to rebuke and reject it when it tries to enter our hearts.
Jesus came to set sinners free, and to give us an abundant life (John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich satisfying life.”) So let’s reject his imposter syndrome and in its place put on the role of beloved daughter of God (Zephaniah 3:14, “Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem.”) I pray we have blessed you with this week’s post. Thanks for joining us.