Are You Deceiving Yourself

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

(Hebrews 3:13)

When I first got saved, I was unprepared for the major life change that I had just signed up for. I liked to drink a few beers on the weekends. Every once in a while, I would drink bourbon whiskey. When I drank, I would get drunk. I didn’t have that switch inside me that said I’d had enough. Fortunately, a Christian friend took me aside and gently warned me about the sin of drunkenness, and a few other missteps I was taking. I learned my lesson. Both in how to accept advice and how to give it.

It’s very easy for me to take a few baby steps toward God, and then one giant leap after another toward sinful behavior. Old unsaved friends, new unsaved friends, unsaved family members, will all inadvertently lead me astray, if I’m not careful.  More often than not, I will walk straight toward sin without any help from anyone. I will fall back into old habits rather quickly when I forget my Christian teaching to influence my behavior. It helps especially when I’ve got a strong Christian friend with me. My wife helps me most of the time. She doesn’t usually have to say anything, just looking at her reminds me of how I’m supposed to behave.

It’s when I’ve already fallen that I will try to deceive myself into believing my sin wasn’t so bad. If I do that enough times, then I’m apt to think my behavior isn’t sinful at all. That’s a very perilous way to think. My heart gets hardened to the effects my sins have on me. My thoughts for helping others are diminished. My love and compassion for the lost is nearly extinguished. My desire for good works around the church and my community starts to vanish. In other words, I am indistinguishable from any of the many unsaved people I encounter every day. How am I supposed to be Christ light to a dark world if my light isn’t shining for all to see?

With today’s social media and all the ways to communicate with each other, it should be easy to encourage one another to righteousness. It doesn’t matter where the temptation to sin comes from, I must try to help my brothers and sisters avoid it. At the same time, I must be open to words of caution from a brother or sister if they see me slipping into sin. If I ignore their warning and let a small sin take hold in my life, then that sin will begin to harden my heart to how bad any sin is. “It’s just a little white lie…it’s no big deal, right?” Wrong!!!

Father in heaven, you have laid out your rules and laws plainly for us to read. Sometimes, however, we deceive ourselves into thinking our sins aren’t so bad. We tell ourselves our sinful acts are not as bad as the sinful acts someone else is committing. We tend to consider our sins as inconsequential, but we’re quick to pass judgment on a brother for nearly the same act. Thank you for the Body of Christ, Lord, that we might have brothers and sisters in the faith to encourage us daily to act in a righteous manner. If we’ve resisted the cautions of our brothers, and continued until our hearts have been hardened, we pray you will soften our hearts and lead us back to righteousness. Don’t let us remain in that deceitful state until it’s too late for us. Bring someone to us who can show us the error of our ways. Help us, Father, to steer clear of that deceitfulness, and let us see ourselves for what we are; sinners in need of forgiveness. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!