A Woman Wanted Some Fruit

Claire Black: This is True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us one drive at a time! Buckle up!You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus.

This season, we’re hanging out in the True Girl Truth Lab. 

Have you ever felt unlovable, stressed out, or sorta dumb? Are you easily embarrassed or a little boy crazy? Those could be sticky feelings.

Last week, we learned that when you think about something all the time every day it’s called a sticky feeling. And if you’re not careful, sticky feelings can lead to believing lies. 

Staci Rudolph told us that all lies come from Satan. And Dannah Gresh used the True Girl lie detector machine to help a girl named Sadie overcome her sticky feelings about beauty. 

Well, there are still problems that need to be solved in the girl world. Today on the podcast, we’ll explore the question, where do lies get their power?

Let’s get into the True Girl Truth Lab.

Remember, this season of the True Girl podcast is based on the best-selling book for tween girls, Lies Girls Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free by Dannah Gresh. 

Oh, I think I see Dannah over there with her lab assistant, Staci. Let’s join them for Season 8, Episode 2 titled, “A Woman Wanted Some Fruit.”

Staci Rudolph: Dannah, we have a problem!

Dannah Gresh: What is it?

Staci: Another letter from a True Girl in trouble.

Dannah: Let’s hear it.

Staci: Okay, let me read it:

I have to tell someone, or I’ll just die from the secret. My parents told me I can’t have social media, but a friend told me she got on without telling her parents. I thought about it long and hard . . . for days . . . and I did it. I can’t believe it, but I did it. I downloaded the app, and my parents didn’t have a clue at first! I could chat with my friends anytime I wanted. I stayed up late the first night doing it. But then I started to feel guilty and lonely, but I knew I could not tell them . . . no matter what! They’d be so mad and disappointed. But now, my mom and dad know, and I feel so embarrassed. I feel so lonely and far away from them. Any advice? ~Zoey

Oh, I’ve got some advice for her alright!

Dannah: Exactly. Sounds like she thought about the temptation all the time, every day!

Staci: Yep! Sticky feelings alert!

True Girl, remember. Nothing good ever comes from thinking about bad things or temptation all the time, every day. That’s how lies take root in our hearts and minds. But they don’t have any power unless . . . Well, I don’t want to get ahead of things. Today we want to explore the question, where do lies get their power?

Dannah: Yes, and the other thing we want to do in the learning lab is to put Zoey’s sticky feeling through the truth lab lie detection machine.

Staci: Can’t wait to see what it comes up with!

Okay, but first, Dannah where do lies get their power?

Dannah: Glad ya asked! Satan may be the one who tells us lies, but they have no power without our help. Let me explain.

 

This is going to sound like a review from last week, but you can never get enough of God’s truth. Let me reread Genesis 3:1–7.

Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any trees in the garden?”

“Of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Here’s what I want to focus on: the verse that reads, “Eve took some of the fruit and ate it.” 

Staci: Yep! Sadly, Eve did eat that piece of forbidden fruit . . . so did Adam! God said “no.” But she didn’t listen. Eve acted on the lie. She sinned by doing something that was against God’s rules.

Dannah: To this day, Satan continues to lie to us with one goal in mind: to get us to take action. He wants us to sin.

Staci: Yeah, sin is doing what is wrong or not doing what is right according to God’s rules.

Dannah: This brings us to something important: lies have no power without our help. Eve chose to cooperate with Satan in four ways.

1. She listened to Satan’s lies.

Staci: 

2. She dwelled on Satan’s lies.

Dannah:

3. She believed Satan’s lies.

Staci: 

4. She acted on Satan’s lies by sinning!

Of course, we will never listen to a snake talk. But that doesn’t mean we don’t listen to lies. Satan uses other things to lie to us—like friends, famous people, music, TV, or social media. Take Zoey, for example. She hung out with and listened to a friend who told her, “You need this app!”

Dannah: Believing a lie always begins by simply listening to something that’s not true. You don’t have to touch it, do it, agree with it, or even like it. You just have to be close enough to listen to it. Don’t do that!

Staci: As Eve thought about it. She thought her life would be better with that fruit. Instead, the fruit took her life away!

Dannah: Eve didn’t die physically on the day she first sinned, but she did die spiritually. And her body immediately began to slowly age, and would eventually die. On top of that, she and Adam felt embarrassed right away and tried to hide from God by sewing big fig leaves together to cover their naked bodies.

Staci: Just like Eve, we all have to choose God’s truth or Satan’s lies. There’s no in-between. And, in almost every situation, we believe this lie: “My life will be better with . . . (fill in the blank)!”

We all know what Zoey would write: My life would be better with the app. But that wasn’t true.

Dannah: Yeah, according to that letter, Zoey isn’t enjoying life as much as she thought she would. Zoey is learning that sin has consequences.

Staci: Consequence is just a big word for the result of a particular action or situation.

Dannah: Yes. The moment we believe and act on a lie, we begin to experience the bad results of our actions. We have more bad thoughts and feelings. You see, Satan’s ultimate goal is our destruction and death, but until then, he just likes to make us feel miserable.

Staci: If you aren’t careful, you could end up like Zoey, feeling sad and lonely. Her sin made her relationship with her mom super complicated.

Dannah: I wonder if you’ve ever been in a place where your relationship with your mom was complicated by your sin.

Oh, you might not struggle with downloading an app and hiding it from your parents, but maybe there is something else you want so bad that you are in danger of acting on a lie.

Staci: You might eventually . . . steal something you can’t afford.

Dannah: You might eventually . . . cheat on a test so you can get an A.

Staci: You might eventually . . . lie to a friend about something you’ve done.

Dannah: You might eventually . . . say mean things to your sibling.

Sinful behaviors can become a pattern in our lives and that’s when we find ourselves in bondage—or feeling trapped by things we thought would make us happy and free. That’s how Zoey felt: trapped!

Zoey’s story has a cool ending that I’ll share shortly. But first.

Staci: Let me do it, Dannah! It’s time to put Zoey’s sticky feeling letter into the lie detector machine!

Dannah:  Rev it up.

Staci: (Shouting) Okay! I’m putting Zoey’s letter in it . . . and I have no doubt . . .

Yep, the red light and alarm prove a lie is, in fact, at work in Zoey’s life!

Dannah: Here comes the lie detector report. Whew!

Staci: There we go. Let’s see.Okay, this says Zoey was believing this lie, “I don’t need to tell anyone about my sin!”

We surveyed 1,500 girls, and more than half currently have a secret about sin. Some say it is a secret about their own sin. Some say it is a sin they keep doing over and over again, but never ask for help. 

Dannah: So, what should a girl do if she’s one of those girls with secrets? What’s the report say?

Staci: Well, just like last week, our report tells us the truth they need! And its Proverbs 28:13. Let me read it:

People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

It’s natural to want to conceal, or hide, sin. Everyone does it. Since the beginning of time when Adam and Eve hid, people have been hiding their sin. But the Bible says you will not succeed if you keep hiding your sin.

It is hard to learn from a poor decision or sin until you admit that you did it and confess it. It is also hard to figure out how to stop sinning without some help. Everyone sins, but the Bible says only a fool keeps doing the same thing over and over again.

Dannah: That’s right. True Girl, I’m going to tell you the thing you may not want to hear: you should tell your mom, or your dad, about any secrets you have, especially if they’re about sin.

Staci: I agree completely, Dannah

True Girl, if you thought about a secret about sin while you were listening today, I hope you’ll tell someone. Dannah, did you ever have to tell your mom or dad about a sin in your life?

Dannah: Yep. I spilled red juice on my dad’s white carpet and then tried to hide it. In fact, I told him it wasn’t me, basically. A few weeks after I spilled the red juice and lied to my dad about it, my parents dropped me off at summer camp. I was so sure a week of pool time, the snack bar, and campfires would ease the guilt. I was wrong!

One night at a campfire, our counselor talked about sin and confession. The whole cabin started confessing really big sins. One girl said she had a secret boyfriend. Another one told us she had stolen something. And some shared even worse things.

Our counselor prayed with each girl, and then simply said to them, “I think you should call your parents.”

There was nooooo way I was gonna tell my secret. What if she made me tell my dad?

Here’s the thing. As we sat there in that room, I started to feel guilty. It was heavier than it had ever been. My mom later told me that this feeling is called “conviction.”

You see, years earlier I had asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life. I had confessed all my sin to Him. He’s the only one who can forgive and erase our sins. But the Bible says that we’re also supposed to confess our sins to one another. James 5:16 says when we do that, it helps us heal. So, our bad feelings can be replaced by healthy emotions and we start to have victory over sinful patterns and habits when we tell others about our sin.

That’s why God’s Spirit convicts us, so we will confess our sin to Him. And then, to someone who can help us overcome it.

Well, in the time between when I had spilled red Kool-Aid on my dad’s carpet and was sitting at that campfire, I kept hoping that I could wait the guilt out, but it just doesn’t work that way. Guilt grows. Conviction grows. It doesn’t go away. I was miserable! 

Suddenly, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I did it! I spilled the red juice,” I cried out.

The entire cabin stared at me with wide eyes. Yet no one made me feel like my sin was worse than theirs, or like it wasn’t big enough to share, it just was different. They just prayed with me. And then . . . my counselor said it. The thing I dreaded most: “I think you should call your dad.”

Staci: Did you?

Dannah: I did! That night after the campfire, I called my dad. I told him what I had done, and asked for his forgiveness. He said, “Yeah, I know.” The truth is, he was way more disappointed that I was lying to him than he would have been if I had just confessed that I disobeyed him by bringing red juice into his office. And, he was really happy that I finally told him. He was just waiting for it, because he knew I would feel better. Telling my dad about my sin didn’t make me feel worse. It made me feel better.

Staci: If you need to feel better too, you should begin with confessing your sin to God. He’s the only one who can forgive you. But if you’re still having trouble, it might be that you need to talk to your mom or dad, too! That’s where healing begins.

Your parents can help you run any lies you’re believing through the truth lab. You can practice identifying lies and replacing them with truth. 

Dannah: I’m so glad we have our parents to help us with stuff like that. You know what Staci? That story about me made me kind of want some red Kool-Aid. Did you ever have Kool-Aid?

Staci: Oh yeah!

Dannah: Let’s go mix some up. I’ll try not to spill it. 

Claire: Well, it looks like we know where lies get their power, from us! When we think about and dwell on lies, we get more tempted and pulled in by them.

Do you have a secret you need to tell your mom? Or your dad? If so, I hope you’ll do it. And if you don’t have a secret sin to confess, keep Proverbs 28:13 nearby. It will help you remember not to hide your sin. Proverbs 28:13, is a great verse to put on a Post-it note. Or hey, did you know that True Girl has memory verse cards of all these key verses? You can learn about them at MyTrueGirl.com. 

That’s also where you can also get a copy of Lies Girls Believe and the True That Sets Them Free. In the pages of that book, you’ll meet Zoey. And explore more of her story. You’ll help her recognize the lies she’s believed. You’ll grow in wisdom so you will know the truth and the truth can set you free!

You can also get tickets to the live True Girl Tour at our website. Our current event is also based on the book Lies Girls Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. Find out if the True Girl tour bus is coming close to you at MyTrueGirl.com!

Well, it’s pretty obvious that having sticking feelings and believing lies is no fun. As you heard today, they create a feeling of being trapped. Next time, find out who can set us free from these lies. Be sure to come for the next episode of True Girl.

The True Girl podcast is produced by Revive Our Hearts calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness!

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.