When you obey
And defend
Your deceptive desires,
You distort
Who you
Really are.

Truth tries
To shine
Freely
In the skies
of human hearts
But lies
Disguise
Its light.

Truth aligns
With reality.
Lies don’t.

As humans, our distorted thoughts, feelings, and desires are our greatest source of deception. Desire distorts belief. We too often believe what we want to be true and deny the truth that we don’t want to admit.

Truth looks at things from the point of view of eternity, not from the narrow perspective of time. Eventually time will end. What then?

In the meantime, our desires, feelings, and opinions can manipulate your mind and make you believe lies. Don’t let them. It’s human nature to want our desires and opinions to be true, but in reality, they often aren’t. It’s much easier to align your life to your feelings, desires, and opinions that it is to align it with truth.

When we value and/or trust our opinions, feelings, and desires more than truth that contradicts them, we’re deceived. Believing a half-truth is like trying to cook a dish with half a recipe. People who arrogantly accuse other people of lying are frequently trying to hide their own lies and deception.

Selective truth is often more deceptive than an outright lie. In difficult or embarrassing situations, it’s usually easier to be a liar than a truth-teller. I’m fortunate to know many trustworthy truth-tellers who walk in the light and sincerely try to avoid spreading deception.

You have the power to: Determine your desires, to exchange your emotions for truth, and to opt out of your misguided opinions. Regardless of our public image, deep down inside (and in spite of our attempts at denial) we all know what we’re really like.

If you make people feel like you’re trying to manipulate them, they’ll be unwilling to hear what you’re trying to say. Lies like to be loud. Truth often whispers.

Warfare weaponizes lies and uses deception to help destroy human lives. It’s best avoided.

Religion is often used as a cloak to cover the guilt of wrongdoing when it should be a light to expose and overcome it. Reading the Bible daily makes me face and admit truths about myself that I’d prefer to deny.

Jesus said that He is the truth, and He is confounding. He continually challenges and confounds my desires, feelings, and opinions–turning them upside down. Although it’s quite painful to watch many of my hopes and dreams be deconstructed and dismantled by the living Jesus, I try to let Him have His way, even when everything in me seems to want to go another way. Daily surrender is far from easy but thank God for His grace that freely offers us the power to lay down our wants, emotions, and thoughts in order to follow Jesus instead.