Command 8 : Keep Your Word | Day 55 Avoid Misleading Impressions!If we want to have full and successful lives, God has some very specific requirements for us. “What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it” (Psalm 34:12-14). In order to fulfill the command to keep our word, we must identify and remove any guile from our conversation. Guile is deceit, which includes exaggerations, partial information, or half-truths that are designed to give a false or misleading impression. As stated in Psalm 32:2, God rewards the man who removes guile from his spirit. “Blessed is the man ... in whose spirit there is no guile." One day, a young man was very attracted to a young lady and asked her to marry him. They had met each other at Bible school, and they both planned on being missionaries. She was very impressed with his spirituality and dedication to Christian work and felt confident that he would make a Godly husband and father. He confessed to her that earlier in his life he had experienced a "little" problem with pornography. However, he assured her that it was now totally conquered and that he was walking in spiritual victory. This partial information led her to think he was more spiritual than he really was. The fact was that he had an ongoing problem with lust which had never really been conquered; setting aside pornography was only part of the solution. After several years of marriage in which he hid his problem, it finally surfaced and caused tremendous anguish to his wife and children. When discovered, he left his family for another woman. If only he would have walked in the light of total truth, he could have experienced God's freedom and blessing. He also could have avoided God's strong condemnation of his hypocrisy. (See Matthew 23:27-28.) Hypocrisy is appearing to be on the outside something other than what is true on the inside. Giving false impressions is often motivated by fear of rejection. To conquer this, we must experience a death to our pride. God promises that if we humble ourselves He will give us more grace, and with that grace we will have the power to carry out His will. (See James 4:6.) If we have given false or misleading impressions, now would be an excellent time to humbly explain the truth, so that mature believers could strengthen us through their prayers and counsel. This is the instruction of James 5:16: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” |
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