Who Can Understand It?

Who Can Understand It?

It seems impossible to turn around without being confronted with a lie, a so-called half-truth, or a statement you can’t be sure is truth or a lie because the teller has lied one-too-many, two-too-many, countless-too-many times.

I can’t control others. I can’t make anyone tell the truth. Or own their responsibility in an ugly situation. I can’t fix the emptiness that makes people perpetuate their incomplete, and therefore untrue, version of a situation for validation. I can’t stop the ripple effect as a relationship full of lies destroys a family. I can’t repair a society that depends on an intricate weaving of lies to function.

I can only look into my own deceitful heart. And cry out with David, Search me and know me… I can ask God to cleanse me.

Any sin we hold onto is fertile ground for deceit.

Any sin we hold onto is fertile ground for deceit. Click To Tweet

When I Tell the Truth

I envy. I covet. I doubt. I hate. I still struggle in my thought life. Worse than that, at times it takes me longer than it should to struggle, because it’s so much easier to live in a fantasy in my head than keep on engaging the world as it is, others as they are, and myself as I am. The sin of ingratitude leads to dissatisfaction, which makes returning to a life of moving fantasy into reality oh, so tempting.

There’s so much about my life that I don’t like, that I wouldn’t have chosen. The irony is that much of what I wouldn’t choose is a direct result of choices I made.

Why are we so short-sighted?

The choices I make today enhance or limit the choices I'll get to make in the future. Click To Tweet

Following My Heart

Our cultural obsession with telling people to follow your heart is one of the worst things about our society. It creates and perpetuates all types of ills.

I feel unhappy, so I must find the next thing to make me feel happy. And the next. And the next. And the next.

It never stops.

Our hearts are deceitful. We let them lie to us, and they motivate us to lie to others. We want to manage how we appear. We want to get what we want.

We know feelings lie, so why do we think it's wise to follow our hearts? Click To Tweet

Training up A Child

As a parent, there’s something else I can do. Sunday School teachers and youth leaders can also help.

Kids lie. And each day I’m further convinced of the importance of confronting the child who needs to follow up mistakes with That’s what I meant or a straight-out lie that they didn’t say or do whatever is in question. Recasting one’s role in a situation, or rationalizing, to avoid taking responsibility for behavior is wrong at any age.

A child who can’t stand to tell the truth or let a truth stand if it casts him in a negative light will become the adult who lies as naturally as he breathes.

A child not taught responsibility for his actions becomes an adult who lies as easily as breathes. Click To Tweet

Bearing False Witness

There’s no end to the good reasons God forbids lying. And I’m crushed under the weight of our consequences. Society is twisted and broken with lies, but would cease to function if suddenly all were revealed or it became impossible for us to speak an untruth.

Business. Government. Families. Screeching to a halt. Society couldn’t function without the power of lies fueling oppression and manipulation, and the web of deceit that allows cooperation.

No one needs to be taught to lie. It’s an instinct of self-preservation. Some of us are just better at it than others; some are better at rationalizing the necessity to lie. Integrity requires effort. It can cost to tell the truth. Lies make life easier in the moment, but make a very poor foundation on which to build a life, a relationship, or a society.

Lies make things easier in the moment but are a poor foundation for a life, relationship, society. Click To TweetDon't follow your heart. It lies. Follow Truth.

I am Weary

I’m part of the problem I don’t want to be part of. I don’t want to be a lie.

I may not be able to stop hearing another lie, but I don’t want to accept even one more.

The Remedy

The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9, NASB

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…”
John 14:6, NASB

The heart is deceitful. Jesus is Truth. Know God's Word. Click To Tweet

 

 

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12 thoughts on “Who Can Understand It?”

  1. My own heart cringes every time I hear the phrase, “Just follow your heart.” It is said with the best of intentions by kind and beautiful people who mean well, but have no real idea of just how deceitful our hearts truly are. Thank you for posting this, sometimes it’s hard to remember that I’m not alone in my convictions. I can totally relate to you. God bless you.

  2. This tracks so well with my reading in Romans this week. Flesh versus spirit. The battle fought in the mind. Praise God, He gives us everything we need to experience victory over our sinful desires!

  3. This is a very honest post, containing so much biblical truth. I love it. I love this part especially: “Worse than that, at times it takes me longer than it should to struggle, because it’s so much easier to live in a fantasy in my head than keep on engaging the world as it is, others as they are, and myself as I am. The sin of ingratitude leads to dissatisfaction, which makes returning to a life of moving fantasy into reality oh, so tempting.” I have written about this, too. https://yvettelewis.wordpress.com/2016/05/03/grace-not-to-escape/
    It’s a real issue that, I believe, God wants to address with us.

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