Help For Today
"Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature,
for he is a liar and the father of lies." -John 8:44
for he is a liar and the father of lies." -John 8:44
A Long Island businessman in the 1930s bought an expensive brass barometer to mount in his home. However, when the man pulled the instrument out of the box and started to hang it, the arrow that indicated current weather conditions was pointing hard to "Hurricane."
Angrily, he pounded his palm on the glass face of the barometer. The arrow didn't move. He shook it and then banged it on the table. The arrow still didn't move. This thing was obviously defective. So the next morning he fired off a nasty letter to the manufacturer and dropped it in a mailbox on his way to work in Manhattan.
But sure enough, a storm did roar through Long Island that day. And when he drove home in the afternoon, his house was destroyed ... in a hurricane.
You see, there is absolute truth and there is deception.
Non-negotiable Number Four: Believe God, Not the Deceiver
All of life is a choice of who you will believe. Life is a battle between believing the truth or swallowing lies. And because the nature of our hearts--like that of the man in this story--is to doubt the truth and believe deceptions, it takes a deliberate effort to embrace God's truth as non-negotiable. If we don't keep our minds in the truth of the Scriptures on a daily basis, we become easy marks for our constant foe, the devil, who is both "an angel of light"
(2 Corinthians 11:14) and "the father of lies."
So even when the Scriptures teach something you don't like, it's always the right choice to believe God anyway. It's better to know the truth that a hurricane is coming than to mistakenly think you're in the clear.
Discuss
What deceptions have you fallen prey to in the past? How have they burned you? What is God asking you to believe today?
Pray
Pray for daily, deliberate, ongoing discernment.
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Angrily, he pounded his palm on the glass face of the barometer. The arrow didn't move. He shook it and then banged it on the table. The arrow still didn't move. This thing was obviously defective. So the next morning he fired off a nasty letter to the manufacturer and dropped it in a mailbox on his way to work in Manhattan.
But sure enough, a storm did roar through Long Island that day. And when he drove home in the afternoon, his house was destroyed ... in a hurricane.
You see, there is absolute truth and there is deception.
Non-negotiable Number Four: Believe God, Not the Deceiver
All of life is a choice of who you will believe. Life is a battle between believing the truth or swallowing lies. And because the nature of our hearts--like that of the man in this story--is to doubt the truth and believe deceptions, it takes a deliberate effort to embrace God's truth as non-negotiable. If we don't keep our minds in the truth of the Scriptures on a daily basis, we become easy marks for our constant foe, the devil, who is both "an angel of light"
(2 Corinthians 11:14) and "the father of lies."
So even when the Scriptures teach something you don't like, it's always the right choice to believe God anyway. It's better to know the truth that a hurricane is coming than to mistakenly think you're in the clear.
Discuss
What deceptions have you fallen prey to in the past? How have they burned you? What is God asking you to believe today?
Pray
Pray for daily, deliberate, ongoing discernment.
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Dear Father, please give me the desire to know what Your Word teaches, the wisdom to live by it, the discernment to identify all lies, deceptions and false teachings, and the courage to stand up for truth. And please give me a grateful heart for all Your blessings, and a generous spirit to support Your work on earth., in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.
