It’s a new year and always a good time of the year to create new habits and behaviors.  One character flaw I have noticed in my life is how easy it is to lie.  We all lie.  Sometimes we lie about some of the weirdest things.  I will even find myself wondering, “Why did I just lie about that?”

Sometimes we will lie to get out of things like when our wife asks if the baby has a dirty diaper and we will say no.  Then a few minutes later she will see that the baby does have a dirty diaper and we will say something like, “Oh really, I didn’t smell anything.  Really?  It must be my allergies.  Well, let me know next time and I will change it.”

When the cop pulls us over about speeding we will say, “Oh really, I didn’t know I was going that fast even though I tapped on the brakes when I saw you.  Thank you officer I want to be safe.”

When people find out we watch “Dancing with the stars” we will say, “It’s only because my wife likes the show.”  We lie all the time and a lot of time when we read Scripture or hear it taught we will walk away thinking we need to stop lying.  Christians don’t lie.  We don’t want to be hypocrites so we will walk away thinking we need to do what ever we can to stop lying.  At least decrease our lying so we can feel better about ourselves.  Which brings us to trying different “tricks” to get us to stop lying.

We might try different things to help us decrease our lying.  We might set the alarm on our watches to go off every hour so we remember to stop lying.  We might put a sticky note on our steering wheel to remind us to stop lying.  We might try to hang out with people who don’t lie and hope their non-lying will rub off on us.  We might have a friend call us every day to ask us what we lied about and for every lie they get to punch us in the face. Maybe we will find a great book about lying and we will genuinely be emotionally, spiritually, mentally broken so that we don’t want to ever lie again.

Most of the time those things will work for a while.  Some of us do so well at not “lying” it will turn into pride, which means we just start this cycle all over again but instead of lying it is pride.  As we start the new year we could really pick any behavior good or bad, but at some point we never really stop lying.  We might lie less, but it never really lasts.

Here is why it doesn’t last.  It is because when we lie it isn’t because we enjoy lying and making up creative stories, but because at that moment there is something greater in our heart and mind that leads us to lie.  It might be personal preference and so we want to get out of household chores like changing diapers.  It might be financial loss and we don’t want to pay for a speeding ticket.  It might be the perception that others have of us and we don’t want to admit we watch “Dancing with the Stars”, but in that moment something is more important.  Therefore, we can put all the sticky notes we want on our steering wheel, but as long as there is something bigger in our hearts and minds we will never stop lying.  This is why Jesus is so important.

Warning…Jesus insert coming!

When we meet Jesus and walk in a relationship with Him we will see that Jesus is much more radiant then whatever is in our heart and mind.  Therefore, when we read Scripture, pray, go to church, fellowship, or fast it isn’t to be good people so we can stop lying.  We pursue those things so that we can see the radiance of Jesus.

Therefore, when we see that our child needs their diaper changed our hearts and minds will be moved to serve our children because we know Jesus was so radiant He didn’t have to serve anyone, but He did.  He humbled Himself to serve humanity.  He stepped into our foulness.  He knows what it is like to be asked to do something He doesn’t want to do when He was in the garden and prayed that the Father would take the cup of the cross from Him.  In His radiance He lays down His life on the cross to die for our wicked hearts.

When we draw close to Him and see how beautiful He is we will see Jesus created everything, He owns everything, and when we are in relationship with Him we are rich, therefore, we can pay a speeding ticket and experience financial loss because when we are in Christ it doesn’t matter our financial position because we are eternally rich.

When we draw close to Him and see Jesus then we see it doesn’t matter what other people think about us because the creator of the universe loves us and if people laugh because we watch Dancing with the stars it doesn’t matter.  We are loved by Jesus.

When we connect with Jesus and see how brilliant He is then inevitably it will begin to move our hearts and minds away from lying because we will see that Jesus is much more important than anything else that is leading us to lie.  It might be easier just to set your alarm to go off and remind you to not lie, but in the end it isn’t really changing anything.  We won’t experience genuine life change until we connect with Jesus and see His radiance.