Daily Devotion, July 27, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Proverbs 12:22; Colossians 3:5-10.

Last week’s devotionals were focused on placing our trust in God. Today’s scriptures about lying are connected with the relationship of trust between God and humankind. Lying breaks trust. Lying hurts the one who sends the lie and the one who receives the lie. God loves us always and unconditionally. But lying breaks trust in all of our relationships; with God, with others and with self.

The three simple rules of John Wesley are: Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. When we lie, we are harming God, others and self. Bishop Reuben P. Job, in his book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, has written, “I will guard my lips, my mind and my heart so that my language will not disparage, injure or wound another….(this rule) demands a radical trust in God’s presence, power, wisdom, and guidance and a radical obedience to God’s leadership.”

We can trust God completely because God does not lie. Our lying is often motivated by fear. But 1 John 4:18a says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” Also, 1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is God’s gift of grace to bring us to being forgiven and to truth.

Later in I John 4:20-21, the writer adds, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars: for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” 

Lying creates its own kind of imprisonment. When we trust in a lie, we are never truly free. But God’s gift to us through Christ’s redemption brings us true freedom!

Personal Worship Option:

Colossians 3:12-17 concludes with the ways in which we are called to live in Christ, which are opposite of the ways listed earlier. Through God’s grace, we build trust with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiving one another, and love.