Jennifer has faithfully served CNBC Women for 3 years. In spring 2024, she led a breakout session at Overflowing Alberta titled “Remembering the Kingdom.” Below is Jennifer’s breakout session, adapted into an article.
Case Study
Lynn is a 30 year old school teacher who loves to speak truth and God’s love to little souls under
her care. Telling them God cares for them individually, that they are special, that they don’t have
to earn God’s favor is one of her specialities. She knows exactly how to connect with a fourth
grader and make their day.
However, Lynn cannot seem to grasp those truths for herself. When she came to me, she was
plagued by thoughts of worthlessness, of needing to try harder to earn God’s favor, and the
thought that maybe God’s love was for everyone but her.
Lynn grew up in an abusive home where insults were hurled at her regularly. Not only was her
home abusive, the abuse was coupled with a strict, legalistic religious upbringing. Scripture was
often used to confirm her fears that she was not loved without having to earn it, making her
wonder if the love of God had somehow passed her over. This legalism was present in her church
as well as in her home, assaulting her with messages of never measuring up.
I asked Lynn what messages she would give to the fourth graders in her school. Would she tell
them they were worthless? Would she warn them they needed to earn God’s favor? Would she
suggest his love was for everyone but them? Horrified, she agreed she would never give fourth
graders those messages, yet couldn’t stop the voice in her head from repeating them to herself.
When I explained to her the concepts forthcoming in this article, Lynn said she had never heard
anything like that in her life. The thought of becoming free from the condemning voice in her
head filled her with such profound relief, she teared up. In her 30 years, no one had taught her
that she could overcome the thoughts in her head through the power of Scripture and the help of
the Holy Spirit.
Illusory Truth
Simply put, illusory truth is the idea that the more we hear or read of a concept, fact, headline, or
piece of trivia, the more likely we are to believe it. Studying this phenomenon became even more
popular after the 2016 US presidential election when researchers realized fake news was on the
rise. People only had to read a headline a handful of times before they accepted it as true. Fake
news, then, became a real problem on social media and in advertising because people believed it
so quickly. In fact, one study suggested that people only need to be exposed to a fact two times to
accept it.
The concept of illusory truth has great implications for our minds and the minds of those we
help. Whether, like Lynn, abusive and legalistic messages were spoken over us as children,
whether the enemy is planting ideas in our lives, or whether our own humanness causes us to
believe untruths about how God sees us, we can all struggle with hearing lies or “fake news” and
believing it is true.
If we really only need to hear something twice to start to believe it, we can accept untruths from
an early age. Illusory truth studies also tell us that once we believe something, it is hard to
displace that belief, even when confronted with the truth. In Lynn’s case, she knew from
Scripture the truth about how God sees her and his love for her, however, she still couldn’t bring
herself to believe those truths were for her because of how often she had heard the opposite.
And yet, as always with God, hope is not lost.
If illusory truth can be used for “fake news” and lies in our minds, I wondered, could it also be
used for good? Could we tell ourselves the truth so many times that we start to believe it? I
started looking through Scripture to see what it had to say and I studied how this could be part of
applying, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Remembering
Scripture repeatedly commands us to remember. In my own journey with depression and with
clients as well, I often turn to Psalm 42 & 43 for practical tools to combat depression. In Psalm
42:5-8, the psalmist tells himself to remember what God has done in the past when his soul is
cast down.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.”
The psalmist reminds his soul, and his remembering gives him hope he will once again praise
God. This phrase is in the future tense throughout these psalms, indicating it is not an immediate
fix. So often we are looking for quick faith results, wondering why we are not yet praising, or not
yet healed from these thought patterns. Changing our thought life takes time, but with
perseverance, remembering will bring praise.
Psalm 42 & 43 are not the only places remembering is commended to us. Remembering was an
important part of the psalmists’ lives and they often talked to themselves, changing the voices in
their heads to what was true. Here are some more verses.
Psalm 143:5
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your
hands.
Psalm 103:2
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
Psalm 111:4
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful.
The psalmists knew it was so important to remember that speaking the truth about who God is
and what he had done in the past, those truths were put right in their corporate worship. This
important practice was put to music so it could be repeated over and over again, changing
thought patterns and sinking into their very souls. But the psalms are not the only place we are
commanded to remember.
Deuteronomy 8:2
And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in
the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether
you would keep his commandments or not.
We also can remember the way God led us through difficult times. Looking back on God’s
provision and guidance helps us to face difficult times that will surely come again. Just as the
Israelites built Ebenezers out of stones, so too can we build them in our lives. Whether it is a
tangible, physical remembrance, or just a decision to remember, it is important for us to look
back in our lives and see how God has led us in the past.
Deuteronomy 4:9
“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have
seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your
children and your children's children—
Not only are we to remind our own souls, we are to remind those under our care. Sometimes
those whom we are raising or whom we are ministering to need help to remember what God has
done and who he is and how he thinks of us. We play an important role in other’s lives as we
recount the goodness of our great God. Of course, in order to do that, we must first remind
ourselves.
Supernatural help
We turn to Scripture to remember who God is and what he has done for us. We are not merely
dealing with psychological theories, but instead with supernatural power to combat lies in our
minds.
II Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and
for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good
work.
We don’t combat the “fake news” in our heads with truth we hope is true; no, we can rely on the
very words breathed by God. What a blessing for us that we have the source of truth available.
Not only do we have the source of truth, we have the Holy Spirit guiding us as we remember.
John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all
things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Holy Spirit lives within us, faithfully reminding us of truth. When we choose to listen to
him, he gently brings Scripture to mind, combating the lies we have been telling ourselves. We
do not have to rely on our own strength and abilities to renew our minds, thankfully, but instead
the Holy Spirit guides us through the process.
I often help clients visualize their minds like a grassy field. Over time, they have created paths in
that grassy field, to the point where some are hardened dirt paths. They are easy to find, easy to
walk, and become the automatic way in which we think. Especially when those paths were built
while we were young, it may not even occur to us that we can carve new paths. Lynn had spent
30 years walking the path filled with lies but the Spirit was doing a great work in her and she was
noticing the paths were not true. She wanted to carve new paths, but didn’t know how. Making a
new path in a grassy field takes a great deal of time. We must walk the new path over and over,
tapping down the grass until the path becomes discernible. We may have to do some weeding,
some intentional carving out, and it will take a lot of work. Making a new path is not easy and so
many people give up before that path becomes the one of least resistance. But it is possible with
time to combat the “fake news” in our heads. Illusory truth shows us that repetition is necessary
but Scripture and the Holy Spirit combined give us a supernatural advantage and assure us that
we can know the truth.
Living it out
I encouraged Lynn to start a log of her thoughts. In order to combat the lies, we needed to know
exactly what lies she was telling herself. I had her create three columns on a paper and in the first column write down the lies as she was thinking them. I encouraged her to spend several days just observing. In the second column labeled “Truth?” she began adding a yes or no. Yes, this thought is true, or no, it is not. And since truth is based on Scripture, in the third column, we took the thoughts that were untrue and combated them with truth from God’s Word.
This process takes time. It takes time to identify the thoughts, to find the verses to combat them,
but also for the truths to start taking hold in our mind. Truth must be repeated, over and over,
until it creates new pathways, new ways of thinking. One day, we hope Lynn will no longer
believe lies about herself, but will instead be filled with the truth of Scripture, confident in God’s
love for her, and know beyond a doubt that God loves her specifically. We pray she will be able
to see herself the same way she sees her fourth graders, and the lies she was told as a child get
replaced with a deep belief that God sees her as a beloved daughter. All this is made possible by
the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works in me as her counselor to guide her to truth, but more
importantly, he guides and convicts and gently brings to mind the truth as she carves out those
new pathways in her mind through the repetition of the supernatural power of truth from
Scripture.
Jennifer Holmes is a Biblical Counsellor with her MAC degree from Westminster Theological Seminary and Director of the Hope Care Centre, coming alongside churches in the mental health and relational care of their people by offering resources, seminars, and one on one care. She is also a speaker, podcaster, and writer on the topic of mental health and faith. You can find her latest book on her website, jensnewsong.com as well as her podcast and other resources. Follow her on Instagram for encouragement and glimpses into her daily life @jensnewsong as she works out what it means to be a Christian living with mental illness.
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