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Key Bible Verse: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says (James 1:22). Bonus Reading: Jeremiah 17:9-11

There is nothing more devastating to a believer than looking spiritual while living in defeat.

One couple shared how God shook them out of their complacency about deception. They were selling their home, which had a significant problem with flooding in a basement playroom. During the dry winter season, they replaced the carpet and put the house on the market.

They were showing it to a very interested buyer, and when they went to the playroom the potential buyer mentioned that the carpet looked new.

"Sure," the small daughter replied, "the old carpet got wet every time it rained." This came as a shock, since the couple had skillfully avoided any mention of a water problem.

The buyer left, but not without a thorough discussion of ethics and Christianity. You see, the couple selling the home was a well-known pastor and his wife. Later he told me, "We allowed our personal needs to choke out our spiritual values. God simply used the honesty of a young child to expose us."

The truth revealed will make you truly free; concealing facts will make you a captive of your own hypocrisy.

—Larry Burkett in Great Is Thy Faithfulness

• What's a tough place for you to practice honesty? Confess it and ask God to help you leave the lies behind.

Thought to Apply: When you stretch the truth, watch out for the snapback.

—BILL COPELAND

Credits: Adapted from—Tuesday: Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Barbour, 1998)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail mail@menofintegrity.net.
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