“And Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, 'Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, then I shall be as a deceiver in his sight; and I shall bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.'” (Gen. 27:11-12, NASB 1977)
Did you catch Jacob's faulty reasoning? He would be seen as a deceiver only if he was caught. (Listening to his mother's plan and then strategizing how to pull it off – that wasn't deception?)
Believers in Jesus cannot live that way. God's Word is clear: “Do not lie to one another . . .” (Col. 3:9).
Here is your weekly protein.
1. Answer these questions.
Have you recently resorted to deception, or considered it, in order to resolve a matter of concern? (If yes, how bothered are you by that admission?)
On a scale of one to ten (ten being the highest), what number best describes how quickly you have been to act deceitfully?
Why does acting truthfully sometimes seem harder than acting deceitfully?
3. Communicate with your pastor. Relay that you want to to be more consistent at walking in the truth. Ask him or her, “Do you have any suggestions?”
