Read the Bible in One Year: Day 9 – Actions Have a Language

Genesis 20-22 / Matthew 7:15-29 / Psalm 9:1-12 / Proverbs 2:16-22

When Abraham and Sarah both agreed to tell a little white lie to Abimelech about her being Abraham’s sister, their lie brought on a dream of warning from God, Abimelech’s anger, and restitution paid to Abraham for the wrong committed against them both.

Where is the line between truth and lie?  I have friends who see no line, and friends who love that blurry, gray part in the middle.  But I wonder what God thinks.  I mean, Abraham was still called and blessed of God, even though he told this white lie not once, but twice! 

Does that mean it’s okay to lie, knowing God will forgive and still bless you? 

The first line of Genesis Chapter 21 is interesting The LORD kept His word…

Hm, if God keeps His word, ought we keep ours?

All that said, this does not negate that Abraham was quick to obey God whenever God asked him for anything.  All of us have areas that are not surrendered yet.  It is important to continually look at our lives for areas that need a Holy Spirit invasion!

Matthew talks about being able to identify false prophets by their fruit.  If our words identify to whom we belong, we must certainly be circumspect about the words we choose to speak.  And we do have a choice in what we say.  What we think is another topic altogether!  Because what we believe becomes what we say.

Matthew says we can identify people not only by their words, but also by their actions. My friend Steven B recently quoted, “Your actions are speaking so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”  So true.

We’re all a work in progress with some areas surrendered to God and other areas yet to be surrendered.

I choose to believe there is always Grace for what’s next!