How to Kill A Spider: Overcome The Lies That Make You Feel Small

People hate spiders.

Google “top 10 fears” and “fear of Spiders” is always in the top 10 and on some lists, it’s as high as #3. Arachnophobia, there’s a reason they made a movie about it.

In the Summer of 2011, Megan and I led a group of teenagers on a mission trip to the Darién Jungle of Panama. Day 1 on any missions’ trip can be a little overwhelming.

We did our best to make our nervous teens feel as peaceful as possible while adjusting to a new culture. But when Megan opened the door to our motel room for the first time and a huge HUGE red, furry, spider came running out in front of us, I may have froze like a deer in head lights. Beads of sweat may have formed on my brow. But my wife, like a boss, crushed that thing Under the sole of her Silver Sperry’s.

It’s amazing what you can do when you’re trying to keep teenagers from freaking out. Thankfully, no one but us saw our massive red guest. But friend, just try sleeping knowing those guys are all around you. Fun times.

Spiders produce cobwebs, which may not be as scary as spiders, but equally as annoying.

You can clean your house top to bottom of all of the cobwebs and make it appear to have zero spiders in it. But, if you don’t find and kill the spiders, you will continue to have cobwebs in your house.

As human beings, we spend a lot of time trying to clean the cobwebs in our own personal lives, but here’s the truth, we ignore the spider. If we could identify and kill the spider once and for all, we wouldn’t have to ever worry about cleaning the annoying cobwebs.

In his book, “Kill the Spider,” Carlos Whittaker defines a spider as this:

“A spider is an agreement you make with a lie you’ve believed.          A cobweb is any medicator that brings false comfort to that lie.”.

These lies, aka spiders, do two things:

• They create distance between us and God
• They cause destructive behaviors

So how do we overcome the lies that keep our lives small?

How do we kill the Spider?

3 truths that kill the spiders.

 1. You are unconditionally loved by the Father.

The book of Psalms shows David, Goliath slaying David, as a man chosen by God to be King. His life was good and his future looking nothing but bright; when all of a sudden a curveball came barreling in his direction. King Saul became Jealous of David.  So jealous in fact, he tried to kill him. For 7 years, Saul kept an army in constant pursuit of David. For 7 years David feared for his life and wrote this in Psalm 13:

Psalm 13:1-2

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Can you relate to these questions? Maybe, it seems like life is giving you one devastating blow after another. Because of that, you’ve begun to believe the lie that you are on our own. Maybe God is not out there? Maybe this whole thing is a sham?

Listen to how David closes out Psalm 13.

Psalm 13:5-6

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me.

In his darkest moment, David chose to rise above his circumstances and trust in God’s unfailing love for him. We have to remember the good things that God has done in our lives. We need to remember our God loves us fiercely and unconditionally. Even when we make mistakes, He knows exactly how to redeem them.

 2. God is with you. He has good things in store for your future

The only way we can get back to trusting God is by believing He is good.

He is good because He put breath in our lungs. He’s good because He gave us a shot at this life. He fearfully and wonderfully made us and breathed life into us. On top of all that, He sent his son to earth as a man and watched as his creation tortured His selfless act of love to death. And He did all of it so we could have everlasting life with Him in heaven.

He did all of it for you.

Because of this, we don’t have to fear death like other people do. We get the promise of Heaven! If God never gave us another thing, He is still so good. He gave us eternity. He gave us Jesus. Like David, in the tough times, we have to recall the good things God has done for us and remind ourselves, He has good things in store for our future.

 3. You are not an orphan, He has not abandoned you, He is for you.

John 8:34-36

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We are sons and daughters of the living God and He has good things in store for His children. He has set us free from sin, guilt, and every ounce of shame. He redeemed us! We are not abandoned; we are adopted into the family of God. As adopted sons and daughters we have access to the throne room of God. You are enough just the way you are right now! As sons & daughters, we have the power of Christ in us! With Christ all things are possible. Friend, don’t give up when life gets hard, you don’t have to feel abandoned when things aren’t going your way. Remember who you are and whose you are! You have all of Heaven behind you!! Don’t ever forget it.

We have to identify the lies we have believed and replace those lies with truth. (Read more about my journey with that here)

The truth that: you are not alone, you are not abandoned, God is with you and he isn’t going anywhere!

Let me leave you with this:  Just because you’ve believed something your whole life, doesn’t mean it’s true. Take a look at your life and challenge the lies. Lies give birth to all kinds of pain fear which can lead you into destructive choices.  But those lies don’t have to make you feel small any longer.

Your hope for freedom has never looked brighter.  You can know the truth, replace those lies and the truth will set you free.

Until next time,

Chris

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