SCRIPTURE PASSAGE/S
Please take time to read these passages: John 8 & 15; Proverbs 30:5-8
THINKING ALOUD
The word of Agur (Proverbs 30:7) cries out to the Lord for two things; one is that he willbe removed far from falsehood and lying, and two. is that he wants neither poverty nor riches. His cry is for the Lord to feed him with only what is needful.
We need to pray this prayer for ourselves too. We are living in a world where mankind by large has lost his ability to distinguish his right hand from his left, and has lost his sense of reasoning between truth and reality. In the midst of exalting reason and self, many have left God out of the equation. The moral decline due in large proportion to the reasoning away of God and the coming of age of liberty and freedom has brought more despair and despondency than what it thought was freedom. Freedom and liberty from believing in absolute truth and then latching on to relativity has cast off moral restraint and has breed violence, rebellion, and anarchy instead. What freedom is that when the very freedom sought after brought about evil and suffering? Humanity has fallen into the bottomless abyss of sin and degradation; the lurking nightmarish depression of a hurting, lost and confused humanity is seen at every corner, and the cesspool of carnality has reached its peak. It looks like we are in a God-forsaken world. Is that true? No, in reality, we are living in a God-rejecter world!!
We are living among people who have a worldview where the lies of the devil have taken prominence. We need to be aware of its impact in the church too lest we should be consumed in deceit and fall prey to the lies of the devil too. The bible says it explicitly that when the devil tells lies he speaks his native language! That’s the reason why Agur wrote in the book of Proverbs that he seeks God’s deliverance from falsehood and lying. It is the same with us today; seek God to feed us with His Truth, that which is needful for us so that we will not fall prey to falsehood and lying.
One of the most challenging questions of all time for Christians today is this: Do I really believe what I believe is really real? Do I take seriously the truth claims in the Word of God? Do I really live it and act upon it?
In CLASS 201 – Discovering Spiritual Maturity there is a section on having time with God’s Word. Let me just briefly mentioned here for you. We are called to HEAR, READ, MEMORIZE, MEDITATE, and APPLY God’s Word as a daily discipline in our lives.
1. Hear the Word of God – listening to sermons, bible teachings, and bible classes
2. Read the Word of God – read it aloud, read it systematically, and read from different translations
3. Memorize the Word of God. There are many Scripture Memory Systems that you can follow and use.
4. Meditate on God’s Word – Picture it! Visualize the scene in your mind. Pronounce it! Say the verse aloud, each time emphasizing a different word. Paraphrase it! Rewrite the verse in your own words. Personalize it! Replace the pronouns or people in the verse with your own name. Pray it! Turn the verse into a prayer and say it back to God. Probe it! Ask questions like, is there any sins to confess, promise to claim, attitude to change, command to keep, example to follow, prayer to pray, error to avoid, truth to believe, and something to thank God for?
5. Apply God’s Word – what does it mean for me today?
MEMORY VERSE
Proverbs 30:8 - Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me
LIFE APPLICATION
Self-deception is living life outside of reality – believing and acting like someone you are not. Self-deception causes people to justify open sin and rebellion. They simply lined up scriptures, “leadings”, circumstances, and counsel from other Christians to agree with their predetermined ideas to justify their position. The tragedy is, they actually believe that they are right. Riches can give us false pride. On the reverse poverty can give us false humility. The best is to follow Paul’s principle of living: “In whatever state I am to be content.”
The answer to all kinds of false beliefs and perspectives is to ask God to feed us with the food (TRUTHS) that we need. There are two important things to note:
1. Do not neglect to hear, read, memorize, meditate, and apply the Word of God
2. Do not hear and read everything out there in the marketplace of ideas. Not all reading materials and audio messages are beneficial, in fact, they may lead you astray.
PERSONAL PRAYER
Father, deliver me from all falsehood and lying. Feed me with the food that is needful for me. Remind me to hear, to read, to memorize, to meditate, and to apply your Word on a daily basis. Lord, I need your strength and wisdom to be able to be disciplined, to develop the habit of a quiet time with you. Please give me the courage and the strength to apply your Word in my life. Thank you.
