Self-Lying

Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.

Psalm 119:29 (NLT)

My 25-year reunion for my high school graduating class was a couple of years ago. Not a whole lot of our class showed up, apparently. (I wouldn’t know, I didn’t go!) So, a couple of my classmates took it upon themselves to create a digital reunion. We now have a group chat going with around 30 people. I have to laugh at many of the comments because our social dynamic picked up right where we left it two decades ago. The class clown is being the class clown. The jocks are showing pictures of their kids playing sports. The drama queens are talking about how rough life is. It’s actually been kinda cool seeing where everyone ended up in life.

Though we may not all see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, we have all come to one very simple conclusion: Our parents were right. Nearly every one of us has a kid or two of our own now, (One is even a grandma!) and we all agree that parenting is the hardest job on the planet. Why? Because parents have been blessed with decades of wisdom that our kids don’t have. We want to give them the best life possible, so we share that wisdom, only to have them ignore it and simply make their own choices – often times ending in disaster. If they would just listen, things would be so much better.

The sad reality is that all of us, even those of us that are parents or grandparents, do this very same thing to our Heavenly Father. He is eternal, so His wisdom is way greater than any puny human. Yet, we often times ignore His directions in order to make our own decisions – which of course are based on our flawed, sinful human reasoning.

In truth, we are doing exactly what Adam and Eve did. God said, “don’t eat the fruit from that tree.” Humanity: “Don’t tell me what to do.” Chomp. We buy the lie that we can somehow have the same, or better, wisdom that God does when it comes to leading our life.

As our verse today states, “Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.” In other words, when we convince ourselves that we can manage life without following God’s directions, it will end in disaster. In truth, it will end, period. Instead, we need to tap into the vast wisdom of the King of the Universe and trust that when He asks us to do something, He’s got a very good reason; even if we can’t understand it.

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