Please stop telling people, in an attempt to counsel or encourage them, that they need to “believe the truth” when first they need be exposed to why they’d believe a lie in the first place (sin). Otherwise it will not be the least bit helpful. Of course, it’s true that “the Truth will set you free” but that never takes place in a vacuum. The lie they’re believing is functioning too well for them or they wouldn’t believe it. It provides a sense of comfort (idolatry) and until they can see why it’d be worth it (faith) to reverse their belief (repentance) don’t take their lie from them.
Oh, yes, you’d be right, but it will leave them desperate, with nowhere to go. Jesus said “when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.’ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
The Truth, to a guarded, shutdown heart only hardens it further thus creating even more pressure to believe the lie. But, the Truth given to an exposed, naked, shame-filled, lie-doubting heart (grace) will then soften it. And that is when Truth can begin to take up residence and transform.
Pocta’s Pontifications 