[Discoveries] 05-29-07 The gift of honesty

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can 
understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind ... 
Jeremiah 17:9-10*/
/*To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul ... -- Psalm 25:1*/

Here's the second paradigm shift that changed my life: God likes honesty.

Here is something I learned slowly, grudgingly: We lie to ourselves. All 
of us do. It's part of the human condition.

We don't like to admit to ourselves where we are really at. Easy 
example: Ask a teenage boy if he's scared. Will he admit to it? Probably 
not. Instead, he will wear a t-shirt with the words "No Fear" emblazoned 
on it, and try to convince himself that he really believes it's true.

We so desperately want to look good that we hide our faults, our 
failings, our weaknesses, our hang ups, our vulnerabilities from others, 
and, over time, from ourselves. We cannot admit that we are messed up, 
because to admit the truth leaves us with problems we cannot solve even 
if we were given a hundred years to come up with a solution.

We lie to ourselves, and, as a natural result, we lie to God. We tell 
Him we're sorry when we're not. We tell Him we have things under control 
when we don't. We tell Him we will do better next time when we can't. We 
don't talk to God about vast regions of our souls because they are 
minefields laced with lies of every kind. In our silence, we lie.

When confronted with this horrible reality, what do we tend to do? We 
want to straighten up. We want to dress up for God, just like we dressed 
up for church years ago when we were kids. We want God to look at us and 
see something He likes. And to try to make that come true, we lie some 
more.

One of the sweetest words that God speaks to us is this: He already 
knows who we are. He knows everything about us. We can quit pretending. 
It isn't helping. We can pull our heads out of the sand, look around, 
and see the truth. We can run to Him, naked and dirty - because He is 
the One who clothes us and He is the One who makes us clean.

The more God got the real me, the more I got the real God.

Tell God the truth. He can take it. You'll be glad you did.

Be encouraged!
Dwight


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