Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Proverbs 12:19-22 It's easier to tell the truth!

I have a poster in my classroom that quotes Mark Twain: “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”

Abraham Lincoln, who probably learned this from his years as a lawyer, said, “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.”

Our passage today speaks to the importance of being truthful:

Truthful lips endure forever,

    but a lying tongue lasts only a moment... 

The Lord detests lying lips,

    but he delights in men who are truthful. (Proverbs 12:19, 22)

Sometimes telling the truth is REALLY hard! And it’s so easy to slip into lying. Little “white lies” aren’t really too bad, are they? Is just not telling all of the truth the same as lying? If I tell the truth, I’m going to get in trouble! If I tell the truth, what will others think about me? Yikes! Do you see how fear can be the basis for lying? I know it’s what drives my students to lie! It’s amazing to me how hard they will work to avoid telling the truth, because they think they will get in trouble if the truth comes out! The reality is that by the time I finally get the confession, I’m so irritated with them for lying, they have just doubled the trouble! They have wasted my time and destroyed my trust!

Our verses today tell us that God values the truth and He hates lying! We know this! Yet, why do we find it so hard to come clean? Even more than I can tell when a 10-year old is fibbing, God reads my heart like a book! He knows better than I do what’s in there, and He knows when I’m lying. What can I possibly gain by lying? Lying kills my integrity and certainly destroys any witness I have! It just magnifies a problem and gives Satan a foothold in my life as he holds it over my head! Because, as soon as I’ve told the lie, I now have to worry that it will be found out!

The truth sets us free! It may be hard to confess a truth, but it will free you from bondage to the lie! And God will delight in you! I can’t promise God I will never lie - that in itself would BE a lie! But as I freely confess such sin, God will continue to strengthen me against it and free me from it! 

My prayer? LORD, help me to immediately see when lies enter my speech. Keep my mouth from spewing forth lies and exaggerations. Help me to maintain my integrity before You!

 

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