Beloved,
Another way you deceive yourself is when you are trying to deceive others. Do you remember the case of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira? They attempted to deceive the apostles by lying about their offering in Acts 5 :1-4. By verse 10, both he and his wife were struck dead after Peter, by revelation of the Holy exposed their deception. He said this to Ananias:
The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!
Acts of the Apostles 5:4, NLT
You see, they thought they were lying to mere men, but Peter clarified that they were actually lying to God. The thing is, when you choose to lie to God, it’s a vain effort because the God of all truth will certainly know you are lying. The devil, the father of lies, will also know. The only person left to deceive is actually yourself. If you say you didn’t know or that lying wasn’t your intention or whatever you want to say to justify deceit for whatever reason the devil supplies you with to do so, well, you are only deceiving yourself.
Beloved, don’t let your tongue be unbridled such that lies come easily to you. Don’t be so desperate to fit in or impress someone that you mask the truth with deception. You are deceiving yourself if you think it won’t catch up with you eventually.
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
I call you blessed. I call you NATIONS.
