Walking past me with a noticeable lump in his shirt, my son tried to act nonchalant as he hurried through the room. Not realizing how obvious he looked, he dropped his head and pulled out a pair of scissors when I asked him what he was hiding. Because he had taken to “redesigning” things in his room, we had banned him from unsupervised use of scissors. Holding back a smile at his belief in my naiveté, I lovingly disciplined him for his disobedience and deception.
Perhaps Ananias and Sapphira wanted to be viewed well by others (Acts 4:32). Maybe they felt their partial contribution wouldn’t be seen by God. Ultimately, their reasons don’t matter. The lesson of their story is not that God wanted all of their money. He wanted their whole heart (Acts 5:4).
Mired in layers of mixed motives, we try to justify our sinful choices with a cover-up of good intentions. Evasive responses or meaningless “right” answers do little to keep God from seeing the truth (Isaiah 29:13-15). We’re only fooling ourselves, for He isn’t fooled.
Generally grounded in self-preservation, deception has been around since the Garden of Eden. Even great men of faith learned the hard way about the consequences of this common temptation. Passing off Sarah as his sister (not his wife), Abraham lived in the land of half-truths for many years (Genesis 20:13). He had been willing to leave behind all that had been familiar to him to follow God’s leading—everything except the power to deceive. It’s interesting that after Abraham was finally willing to deal in truth, God fulfilled His promise to him (Genesis 20:17–21:2).
God longs to give us good gifts, the greatest being intimacy with Him. But they’ll come only when we’re willing to deal in truth.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: John 4:1-42
More:
Read Proverbs 26:23-28 to see the destructive consequences of dishonesty.
Next:
Do you struggle with being honest with yourself or with others? How are your choices to deceive rooted in self-preservation?
eppistle on June 21, 2011 at 9:09 am
When convicted with the sin in our lives, we need to decide whether we are more concerned about our own image or God’s image – in other words, our glory or God’s glory. If we are more concerned with our own image our pride will lead to cover up. If we are more concerned with God’s glory, our humility will lead to repentance. Repentance can be painful but “blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Don’t let bitterness prevent you from repenting and experiencing the joy of the Lord. As the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
regina franklin on June 22, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Dear eppistle–You make an interesting point about bitterness. Sometimes the enemy hides behind our wounds. In exposing those places, God’s heart is that we be made whole.
alli on June 21, 2011 at 11:12 am
God’s word convicts me everyday. You cannot hide hatred. He knows if you love Him or not. And when you love Him you do what He says. Many bad things happen to me because honestly I didn’t not love God but had bitterness and hatred towards Him. I did. its true. My heart was desperatley wicked and I didnt know and don’t know how to truly Love. So all this time I am thinking I am doing good and God is not happy b/c I am not being honest in my heart. the only way to be honest is to agree with God and do what He wants.
regina franklin on June 22, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Dear Alli–He is patient and loving with us, but your’re right. We have to be willing to be honest in our hearts–to let Him gently expose the things that need to be revealed. Hebrews 12 reminds us of the price He paid for us (v. 2) and that His love is comprised of both His sacrifice and His correction (v. 5-9)–both of which bring us life.
followingHim on June 21, 2011 at 7:12 pm
We are sinful saints–or is it we’re saintly sinners? God sees the evil in our heart–but also our faith in and love for Him. The Lord spoke of the opposite side, the “bright” side of what is hidden in our hearts in Matthew 6.6:
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
So, DO learn from Ananias and Saphira and the consequences of their secret sin. But also, pay heed to the Lord’s words, and be encouraged!
regina franklin on June 22, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Dear followingHim,
Sinful saints or saintly sinners–hmm . . . you could probably break the two terms down to semantics, depending on your perspective. But the heart of what you’re saying remains. We’re all broken, we’ve all sinned–what matters is who we are before Him. The good news is that while we are all a work in progress, He’s promised to keep His potter’s Hands upon us (Psalms 138:8; Phil 1:6) and we can trust that if we are truly engaging Him face to face, the things He is doing in us will become visible.