When I was in High School, I had a classmate tell me one day, “If you were to die, no one around here would ever miss you” – my assessment was that people would be better off without me around! That was an inaccurate perception of my worth. Proverbs 28:26 says “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.” my classmate’s statement was not a true statement because if I would have died, there were many around who would have missed me (I would venture to guess that classmate would have, also!). Let me suggest to you, a few things you can do to overcome inaccurate perceptions you may make like mine in this case.
1. Evaluate the available data on which you have based your erroneous perceptions (Pr. 28:26) – Asking yourself the right kind of self-examination questions can help you deliver yourself from much misery by getting you right to the heart of the issue.
2. Invalidate erroneous perceptions on the basis of two or three witnesses (2 Cor. 13:1) Call together 2-3 of the wisest, most mature people you know. Explain your perceptions, and ask them if it is true.
3. Learn to distinguish fact from feeling (evidence from emotion – Psalm 119:11)/ Understand that many things can influence our emotions, but evidence does not change based on how I feel. We must change our perceptions in light of Scripture, not in light of our feelings.
4. Memorize and meditate on Ecclesiastes 7:21-22. We often feel a verbal pinprick as though we have been stabbed through the heart. we take criticism (constructive or otherwise) as a personal rejection rather than an indication of the reprover’s love or desire of self-exaltation. The point of this passage in Ecclesiastes is that we need to have “Biblical skin” which can help us move forward when people say that that are not true about us.
Ponder on these things today, and tomorrow I will give you a few more things that can help you overcome inaccurate perceptions. Begin today to overcome the lies of the world through the truth of God’s Word.