Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Ezekiel 13:22 -- On Truth and Turning

"Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:"
Ezekiel 13:22


Before this, God condemns people who prophesy according to their own imaginations, and this verse is part of why.  God doesn't promise something he can't deliver, but when we trust in fortune-telling or even the generic "arm of flesh" we are going to be disappointed.  Not necessarily because anyone intended harm, but simply because we believed in a promise that couldn't be kept, or a false idea that was never going to lead us to happiness.

God promises the righteous happiness and warns the wicked of the consequences of their unrighteous actions.  He's telling us what will actually happen in the end.  When other things distort that message of actual reality, then we can get way off track hoping for things that can never happen, like sin making us happy or learning to achieve our potential by overindulging our physical appetites.

Today, let's listen to God rather than to our own or others' imaginations about what can or will be.  God doesn't always tell us what we want to hear, but he always tells us what we *need* to hear, because he wants the best for us, and telling us that we can have everything we want by doing anything we want is simply a lie.  Let's make sure we aren't making others sad with lies either--let's tune into the spirit of truth, and turn from our wicked ways.

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