Perception Is Reality

Jack Selcher
Nov 17, 2025
4 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

An artist is painting his perception of Jesus.

Summary

Perception is limited, incomplete, and often distorted by personal experience, misunderstandings, and the enemy’s lies. Only God fully knows reality, and He reveals what we truly need for relationship and obedience. Our assumptions about God and life can be wrong, leading to a false view of truth. Scripture clarifies that God defines reality, not feelings or culture, and following Christ means rejecting lies and trusting His perspective over our own.

Only God Defines Reality

Perception is reality. Is it? Not even close. These three words don’t define Reality, which I describe as an accurate depiction of all that is and how everything relates to everything else.

Reality isn’t relative and individualistic. Only God can accurately define it. Jesus is the final judge of what is true and what isn’t (John 14:6).

Why the Saying “Perception Is Reality” Falls Short

I get what those who state that perception is reality are saying. For example, our perception of ourselves is built on the foundation of a lifetime of thoughts, feelings, and actions. The files contain many experiences we are proud of, some we remember incorrectly, and some that we try to hide.

By contrast, others’ perception of us might be based on less than one-tenth of one percent of our human experience, concluded from meeting us once, the day after our mother died, when we were depressed, withdrawn, and unfriendly.

As their perception of us based on a brief encounter strays far from one based on forty years of knowing us, our perception of Reality is very far from the whole truth. As Dr. Kenneth Kantzer, my seminary professor, once said, “We know some things out of many, and what we know, we only know in part.” Only God knows everything about everything (Psalm 147:5, John 21:17, Hebrews 4:12-13, 1John 3:20). That is why only He fully understands reality.

God Reveals Only What We Need

God has revealed what we need to know to have a healthy relationship with Him and others, but not everything. “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions” (Deuteronomy 29:29 NLT).

Although the Holy Spirit enables us to see reality, the full portrait of reality is painted with the brush of truth and is visible only to God. He hasn’t dumped the whole load of the truth on us, only what He wants us to know. For example, Jesus summarized how we are to live on earth in Matthew 22:37-39, but said very little about life in the world to come.

We Cannot Fully Understand God’s Ways

God created and manages the world in ways we don’t understand. God faithfully does what He says (1 Corinthians 1:9), but what He will do next isn’t very predictable. God asked Job more than 60 questions to impress upon him how little he knew about God’s Reality. We don’t understand any more than Job did.

Satan Actively Distorts Reality

Another significant challenge in perceiving Reality is that we have an enemy whose influence is woven into the fabric of this world. He intentionally distorts God, His values, and Reality.

He deceives those made in God’s image so they will live independently of Him and try to find fulfillment where God says and human experience demonstrates that there is none. ^“For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world” (1 John 2:16 NLT).

Common Lies That Skew Our View of Reality

Because we all believe at least some of the enemy’s lies, our view of reality is skewed. Here are nine lies some professing Christians believe:

God won’t give me more than I can handle. Wrong. He won’t give you more than you can handle through Christ, who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).
When someone dies, people say that God gained another angel. Wrong. Humans don’t become angels. God’s children will outrank angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). Jesus didn’t become a man so we could become angels!
God wants me to be happy. Wrong. God commands you to be holy because He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). He supplies joy that transcends circumstances. Joy results from submission to and control by the Holy Spirit of Jesus (Galatians 5:22-23).
I could Never Forgive That Person. Wrong. There are many reasons to forgive. You must forgive that person if you want God to forgive you (Matthew 6:14-15). The grace you received for your sins to be forgiven empowers you to forgive others, whose offenses against you are nothing compared to yours against God (Matthew 18:21-35).
Follow Your Heart. Wrong. Jesus called you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23), not your heart. Your heart, the most deceitful of all things, lies to you a lot (Jeremiah 17:9).
God Really Doesn’t Care. Wrong. He gave His Son to take your place on the cross of Calvary (John 3:16).
Well, ______ Will Never Change. Wrong. If God gave you the grace to be saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), why couldn’t he do the same for them?
I Don’t Think That God Likes Me. Wrong. Don’t do good to gain God’s favor, but gratefully love and serve Him because you already have it (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Believe In Yourself. Wrong. That leads to living independently of God. Believe in Jesus and abide in Him (John 15:5). His power working in you can accomplish infinitely more than believing in yourself (Ephesians 3:20).