“Banish lies from my lips and lies from my presence.” (Prov. 30:8 MSG)
This morning, collector of wisdom hands us a solid gold prayer. ‘Banish lies from me and for me.’ It’s as though he had figured out just how hard we struggle with uncovering the truth and holding onto it.
The problem is, we’ve been lied to from first breath. There has always been a saboteur in the room but he rarely makes his presence known. Yet, his ideas endlessly poison our perspective. He lies about everything and everyone. He plants lies about us, lies about others, and most prolifically, lies about God. He points fingers; this is YOUR fault, this is THEIR fault and he never takes credit for his own dirty work. You can be sure that when he speaks, he’s lying. The thing is, it’s tough to assign his words to his mouth, he’s almost always throwing his voice across the room.
It is only in regular reunion with both the Word and the Spirit where we can sort through the lies and settle into truth. The longer we live apart from this process, the more time it will take to separate truth from fiction. We collect a lot of history to sort through, a lifetime of lies to unravel. If we are faithful, if we show up and learn to value scripture as the lifeline of truth, the Spirit will slowly detangle the lies from our life. He’ll tuck truth in our pocket to sustain through the day. He’ll frame up our stories in what’s concrete and unchanging. Then, when the devil comes whispering, we won’t so much as blink at his bait. We’ll smell the artificial from a mile away and flat-out refuse the bait he offers. We’ll be satisfied in the truth of God and uninterested in anything the opposing team serves up.
“I hate and abhor lying, but I love your law.” (Psalm 119:163 NKJV)
Dear Lord, help us see the truth. Give us a love for your Word and a longing for Your Spirit. Untangle the falsehoods from our frame. Help us identify and reject the fabrications of the enemy from now forward. Amen.