Dave’s Monday Blast – November 30, 2015
I trust your Thanksgiving was blessed and you enter this new week encouraged and trusting the Lord. Men of Intention must be committed to truthful living. In order for us to be effective Image Bearers, the Truth must be in us. Life however has a way of getting complex, relationships get sticky, loneliness creeps in and sometimes we just feel the need to bend the truth to make it through the day. We “need” lies to keep the pain tucked away where it can’t get to us. That deceitful heart of ours has a way of making it easy for us to be “okay” with these lies. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” God though, has a way of drawing out truth with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. Psalm 139:23 reminds us that “God searches our hearts…” His search often reveals some very destructive lies.
These lies don’t just cover up the pain of life, though. They actually make it harder for us to grow in our faith and in our connection with others. We’ve gotten so numb to them that we don’t necessarily even see the damage they do. But here’s one time when it’s definitely okay to admit it. If we’re to get beyond the lies that we drag around with us, we have to identify them and call them what they are. If you are going to be the Man of Intention that God has called you to be, and indeed designed you to be…if you are going to have a healthy Spirit-led life that is committed to reflecting His very character, then you must deal with self-delusions once and for all!
Over the next two weeks we will look at 5 Destructive Lies We Routinely Tell Ourselves:
1) I am okay just as I am. The truth is we don’t dig around as we should because we might not like what we find. But that is not the Biblical model. We find the Psalmist crying out for God to search him and test him and examine him so that He can keep doing the necessary renovation work Psalm 11, 17 and 26. The attitude of Scripture is more like what we read in Lamentations 3:40 where we are told to examine our ways and in so doing will return to the Lord as we recognize the sinful ways within us. Honestly, admitting that we’re not “okay” and that we need God’s help can be scary. It means owning our weaknesses and doing the hard work of self-examination on a regular basis. But thankfully for us, God specializes in weakness, especially when we aren’t certain where to start Romans 8:26.
We’re weak. He’s strong. And that’s the best Truth there is!
2) No one will ever find out. If we’re ever looking for justification to do something dumb, we usually start here: No one will ever know! True, there might be a thousand variations on that theme, but it almost always comes back to anonymity. That’s why private browsing on the Internet and personal devices such as smart phones and tablets can be some of the most dangerous tools known to humanity. “No one will know if I watch this! No one will know if I go here while I’m on that work trip. No one will know if I post this anonymous and hurtful comment. No one will ever know!”
First of all, there’s no such thing as true anonymity in our world. What we do “in private” very often has a way of being found out and exposed. (Just pay attention to those hacking breaches you see in the news like Ashley Madison). Most importantly, though, God has a way of making our “no one knows” sins come out…and He does not miss any!
“You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence” Psalm 90:8. Day by day, we let this lie bring us low and keep us from living the life God has planned. You see, God knows, He always knows the dumb things we do. But He still loves us (Romans 5:8).
You can’t hide…and you don’t need to!
Next week we will look at the remainder of this destructive list.
