Be True!

Jeremiah 17:^9-10 “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” (MSG)

Today, we will kick off with our final thought from yesterday which is that we tell ourselves lies sometimes.And one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is, ‘It is not a problem—no biggie!’

You look at your finances, and you know that you are spending more than you are earning, but you tell yourself—no biggie! Your finances are in chaos because you are not tithing, not giving, and not saving. You are ignoring all the principles of financial clarity and instead eating more burgers. You are ‘enjoying’ life and telling yourself that it is not a big deal. It is no problem at all. As a married couple, you look at your sex life and clearly, there is a problem with your sex life. But you tell yourselves that it is not a problem—no biggie! You are lying to yourselves.

You look at your prayer life as a Christian and you know that there is a problem, but you say, ‘No, it is not a problem’. We tell ourselves the biggest fattest lies – it is not a problem. You see your children are going in the wrong direction, but you tell yourself that they will recalibrate. Oh really? And it is because you do not want to be the parent that God has called you to be. You are not willing to pay the price of parenting, so you say, it is not a problem. You are hot-tempered, short-fused, and your lid goes off easily. But you tell yourself that it is not a problem, you will just manage it. You are lying to yourself.

We lie to ourselves, instead of telling ourselves that ‘this is a problem, I need help’. We say, ‘No, it is not a problem’. You look at your thought life, your thought life is chaotic—not a problem. You are fowl mouthed—not a problem. You are gossip-seeking—not a problem. I am here to say to you that the biggest liar you know is you. The biggest liar I know is me. The more you stop telling yourself lies, the freer you become. Not only are you the biggest liar you know, but the person you lie to the most is yourself. You do it all the time. Therefore, to stop defeating yourself, to stop defeating myself, I must stop deceiving myself.

Have a mantra for your life, ‘unto yourself be true!’ In fact, this is one of the statements that radically changed my life. I have a couple of them. We were in a ministers’ conference and the title of the message that the man of God was preaching was, ‘Unto yourself be true’. I can never forget it. Look, when it is all said and done, shut the door and tell yourself the truth. Just try it! That will be the beginning of your freedom.

Prayer: Father, examine my heart and purge me of every lie and deceitfulness. Create in me a new heart and lead me in Your path of truth and life, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen!