Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than
this comes from evil. - Matthew 5:37
The Uncommon devotional uses this verse and then it
discusses honesty. But this verse is
really referring to making oaths. I
think these verses are better:
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who
act faithfully are His delight. - Proverbs 12:22
Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than
one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. - Proverbs 19:1
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off
the old self with its practices. - Colossians 3:9
There are six things that the Lord hates, ... a
lying tongue ... - Proverbs 6:16
An abomination to the Lord ... the Lord hates ...
Yikes! Lying is definitely on the
not-to-do list.
I have lied too much in my life. Mostly because I felt inadequate by
comparison, but sometimes because I'm a scoundrel. I always wanted to be the
best and to be successful. Trouble is,
there is always someone better and more successful. I have found it is better to be a slow
talking Mississippi boy. If there is anybody
that doesn't want that, you don't need them. And if I want anything beyond the closeness of Christ and the blessings He has put in my life, something evil is lying to me. I just wished I'd have learned that a long time ago.
Fortunately, I've learned that God forgives me. And I've also learned that people are actually capable of forgiveness too. This is
something I really didn't know before.
And for that, I am so very grateful.
Aside from my having children showing me how God loves His children, nothing
has shown me more about God than someone showing me undeserved forgiveness.
3 comments:
Glad to hear you're feeling forgiven from God and others as well.
I am not certain that you can feel forgiven. I believe you either accept that you have been forgiveness or you don't. Do I believe in Jesus? That answer has to be the same as the answer to the question: Do I believe in being forgiven? Either I believe in Jesus and in his death and resurrection or I don't. And either I believe I am forgiven or I don't. To not believe in forgiveness is to not believe in the work of Christ. How I feel about it doesn't matter.
Regarding people, it is different. It shouldn't be among Christians but they are often the least forgiving somehow believing that they are above sin or that they don't want to get dirty by being around you. But when a strong Christian comes along side and puts their arm around you, prays with you, text or calls you every few days to check you, and looks you in the eye and says they forgive you. Then they encourage you in who you are. You believe that person.
We always talk about Jesus having no hands or feet but ours. I believe at times we need the physical "look in our eye" by others to drive home God's action - in this case forgiveness.
I would encourage you to not ignore feeling. We are trained as Engineers to suppress feelings and make decisions based on objective data. I support that approach in our Christian life as well. I life based on feeling is not well focused. I learned, however, to ignore the overwhelming FEELING of God's love is to deny a very real aspect of who he is and how he relates to us. I was so conditioned to ignore feelings that I think for about 40 years or so of my life I simply couldn't fathom God's boundless overwhelming love. I've discovered that most men are incredibly sensitive. I think we miss out on a very real aspect of God's relationship with us when we suppress the love he wants us to FEEL in a very real way. Forgiveness is no different. It starts with the intellectual knowledge that God has the incredible capacity to forgive and has put special people in our lives and He has given himself to equip them to forgive as well. That knowledge becomes complete when it migrates some 17" or so from our head to our heart and we genuinely FEEL the power, majesty, and awesomeness of HIm and his incredible power, including forgiveness.
Believe until you feel, then complete your training will be! (in my best Yoda voice) :)
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