Today’s devotional is from Max Lucado’s Grace for the Moment
The Wages of Deceit
No one who is dishonest
will live in my house; no liars
will stay around me.
Psalm 101:7
More than once I’ve heard people refer to the story [of Ananias and Sapphira] with a nervous chuckle and say, “I’m glad God doesn’t still strike people dead for lying.” I’m not so sure he doesn’t. It seems to me that the wages of deceit is still death. Not death of the body, perhaps, but the death of:
a marriage–Falsehoods are termites in the trunk of the family tree.
a conscience–The tragedy of the second lie is that it is always easier to tell than the first.
a career–Just ask the student who got booted out for cheating or the employee who got fired for embezzlement if the lie wasn’t fatal….
We could also list the deaths of intimacy, trust, peace, credibility, and self-respect. But perhaps the most tragic death that occurs from deceit is our [Christian] witness. The court won’t listen to the testimony of a perjured witness. Neither will the world.
Just Like Jesus
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In a lot of cases the lie is not the original sin, but the covering up of a sinful act.
To extend Max’s list, you could look at a list of headlines today and probably pick out quite a few that involved a lie.
I think this is another reason why God holds it in such disdain, is it is so easily done. It slips right off the lips, but can cause so much pain and damage.
God as a good Father, knows the pain it will bring so he tries to warn us over and over, from the first days of man.
May God Bless you!
myBlessedHope 