3 Bad Excuses for Lying and How to Fight Them With Truth - Finds.Life.Church

3 Bad Excuses for Lying and How to Fight Them With Truth

by Cindy Beall

It can be ridiculously easy to lie. Why? Because we make excuses for lying. Have you ever had a thought like this? I only said something mildly untruthful about my childhood years ago. It was just a bit of a fabrication.

Man, that sounds so much better than saying I lied, doesn’t it? We dress up lying with fancy, intelligent-sounding words so it won’t seem too bad.

We’ve all lied, and most of us feel guilty when we do. However, we tend to put stipulations on lying. If we won’t lie on our taxes, to our spouse, or at work, what about the little fabrications that we tell? We answer “fine” to keep people from getting too close and know how we’re really doing. We tell our kids to say we aren’t home when the doorbell rings. We make ourselves the hero of a story. We tell our boss we’re almost done with a task we forgot to start.

All growth starts with honesty. So let’s be honest—all these “little fabrications” are lies.

The Bible is clear on this one. God hates lying. Thankfully, He does love us, but He does not like it when we sin. And when I lie, I sin.

Here are three common excuses for lying and the truths we can use to deflate them.

  1.     Lie: We lie to ourselves because we’re afraid reality is more than we can bear.

Truth: Reality may be more than we can bear, but His power is made perfect in our weakness.

  1.     Lie: We lie to others because we don’t want the discomfort accountability brings.

Truth: We confess to God for forgiveness; we confess to others for healing.

  1.    Lie: We lie to God—maybe because we’re afraid He’ll stop loving us.

Truth: God knows all and sees all, yet He still loves all.

So, let’s turn our good intentions into honest actions. No more excuses for lying. Let’s deflate lies with honesty. Let’s be truth-seekers, truth-lovers, and truth-tellers in all we say and do.