To
Be Honest With You
The
sanctified body is one whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on
them, the withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them, the mark
of violence is not found upon them. They have been separated from every
occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow-man. A.B. Simpson
I
looked up the word honesty in the dictionary and one of the definitions it gave
me is “freedom from deceit or fraud.
One
of the interesting phrases we often use and I have used it in the past is “I’ll
be honest with you.” Do you ever say things and not really think about their
meaning? Has someone ever asked you to
do something or asked you a question and you prefaced your response with “I’ll
be honest with you.” As opposed to
what? “I’ll be dishonest with you.” Does
this statement mean if you don’t preface your statement with it that you will
be dishonest in all your dealings. To use them becomes a habit so we spout them
without thinking what our language is telling another person about us or if it
even makes sense.
Why
do we find it so hard to be honest with others?
Fear. We are afraid of what the
other person will think of us if we are honest with them. As readers of my blog, I have told each of
you more about myself than even my own family knows or I should say knew, since
most of them read my blog too. I have
shared my fears with you, my shame, my insecurities and my sorrow. If I can’t describe to you honestly who I
really am then the devotionals I write are meaningless.
The
interesting thing is God already knows my fears, shame, insecurities and
sorrows. He knows all my secrets and yet
He loves me anyway. When we are able to
understand that we have an all knowing God who loves us it gives us the freedom
to let the rest go and be honest in everything we do.
Freedom
is what we get when we let go of our fear of what others think and focus on
what God thinks. We are free to be the
person God wants us to be.
Prayer for the Day: Heavenly
Father, I have not always been honest in my dealings with others because I was
afraid. I was afraid they wouldn’t love
me anymore. When I focused my energy on
being honest it freed me to understand others failings and to love them
anyway. The power of Your love set me
free. Free to be honest, free to love
and free to be me.
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