Being Lied To

Who do you trust?  Is there anyone you can truly put your trust in?  In the world we live in it seems like trust is vanishing and people have a hard time trusting in general.  If you think about this problem I guess it has been a problem for many years.  It started out in the book of Genesis when Eve listened to the serpent and was deceived and lied to, and all down through the ages from the time Jesus walked the earth up to our present day lying and deceit have been woven through the pages of time.

Even Jesus made this statement about people in John 2:23-25, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”

Jesus didn’t trust men because He knew what resided in the heart of man.  This is what God’s Word says about the heart of man in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Since the beginning of the creation of man when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, all who have been born were born in sin and have a sin nature, except for Jesus.  With this sin nature we have a hard time trusting ourselves, let alone trusting someone else.  

What happens when you are lied to or deceived by someone?  You lose trust in that person and many times that trust is never restored for that person, even if they ask you to forgive them and you say that they are forgiven, or, if the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak, and you lie to someone and you ask them to forgive you.  How can you tell if you have forgiven someone?  When their name comes up, how do you feel or how do you respond?  Or, when you walk into a room and that person is there, that you lied to, how do they respond to you?  It isn’t real hard to know if you have really been forgiven or if you have really forgiven the other person.

I worked with a man that seemed to be a chronic liar and because he did it so often I don’t think he even realized he was doing it.  It had become a part of his identity and no one that knew him very well would trust him.  When we deceive and lie to people, that is how people remember us, unless we have been truly forgiven.  And this usually won’t stop there because most people like to talk and because of that, how many other people have formed their own opinions about you when they hear what other people have to say about you?  The old saying is true, “What an evil web we weave when we practice to deceive.”  We all may have been guilty of this at one time or another; I know I have to my shame.

Lying and deceiving seem to run rampant in our society and the world we live in, and it is easy to say, everyone is doing it, but that is not true, it is a cop out.  If you are a believer and you are into this kind of sin, repent, which means to turn in the other direction and confess and ask the Lord to forgive you and do your very best, with the Lord’s help, not to repeat it again.  This is the reason God hates sin, because of the devastation it causes.  

Pray and ask God to help you hate sin in any form like He does.  Don’t be ashamed to weep and wail over your sin and let God restore you and forgive you and heal you of your sins.  Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up in His time.

Read what it says in James 4:7-10, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

Read what 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Praise God for His amazing grace and forgiveness when we repent and confess our sins.  Something to think about and act on if you need to!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super, super day!!  PS don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!