I Lied

Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions. ~ Psalm 119:29 (NLT)

Most of us who have grown up in the church have heard of the 10 Commandments. Perhaps at some point in your life, you were even made to memorize them. I know that I certainly did. Though many of them convict me in big ways, the one that always got me when I was younger was “Thou shalt not lie (bear false witness).” Kids are pretty good at lying. In fact, I’ve discovered as a parent that you don’t have to teach a child to lie. They are naturally good at it. Unfortunately, this innate ability usually carries forward into adulthood.

Let’s face it, those of us who have a few decades of life experience can be pretty good liars too. I’ve had to confront employees who lied about their timecards. I’ve had to challenge people who had taken something that wasn’t theirs. I have witnessed another adult telling a story to someone else that was completely fabricated. (It was made up) People lie on their taxes. People lie on their applications when applying for a job. And so on, and so on. I guess it doesn’t matter the age, we are all pretty capable liars.

But, I truly believe that the most common form of lying is to ourselves. We lie to ourselves all the time. We lie to ourselves when we believe we don’t need help to get out of an addictive behavior. “I can fix it on my own,” we often tell ourselves. “I’ll get more serious about my faith when I’m older, after I’ve done the things I want to do” is another lie we think. Yet, I’ve seen over and over that there is no “older.” People keep distancing themselves from God in pursuit of things that leave them empty. Probably the biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we must somehow earn God’s love – eventually leading us to abandon our pursuit of Him because perfection is too high a standard to meet. Here’s the truth. Stop thinking your own theology and start reading about truth. Our minds are corrupt, telling us lies about who God is, and is not. Yet, the Bible is our source of truth when it comes to faith.  As our verse today states, “Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.” Dig into the Word of God. Stop believing lies and get a daily dose of truth. Let Him show you who He is and who He made you to be.