«Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain» (Zechariah 8:3).
S
ATAN ENTICED our first parents to eat of the forbidden fruit by blurting out the greatest lie that has ever been uttered on this earth: «You will not certainly die!» (Genesis 3:4, NIV). His diabolic ability to lie earned him the title of «father of lies» (John 8:44), but he has also specialized throughout the centuries in turning us into liars. Undoubtedly, to human beings, lying comes easy, even naturally. Robert Feldman says that ordinary people tend to lie «to quell their own insecurities, to build a friendship, or to avoid a disagreement.»* We certainly don’t lack «reasons» to do so.
Several years ago, Bella DePaulo and her Social Psychology colleagues at the University of California in Santa Barbara asked 147 adults to keep track of all the lies they said over the course of a week. Their research proved that, on average, we lie once or twice a day. Another study showed that women lie in 64 percent of their conversations, whereas men do so in 36 percent of them. Most of these lies are the famous «white lies.» For instance, among women, the most common lie was: «Nothing’s wrong with me; I’m fine;’ And among men, one of the most popular was: «No, darling, you’re not fat.» In brief, lying has become a ubiquitous element of our humanity.
The psalmist says some people «take pleasure in lies» (Psalm 62:4, GNTI. How ever, we should not be among that nefarious group. We Christians cannot let our lives be ruled by lies, nor should we fall into a theatrical frivolousness that makes us constantly swing from lies to truth.
Only those «who speak the truth from their heart» (Psalm 15:2, NIV) will be on God’s holy mountain. Because lying is as natural to us as breathing, we need a heavenly work to take place in our hearts. Like Isaiah, we need to be told, «See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for» (Isaiah 6:7, NIV).
May our prayer today be: «Never take your word of truth from my mouth» (Psalm 119:43, NIV). If we do so, we can have the assurance we will soon be living in the City of Truth.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Angelica Cuate
