When I first believed in the Lord, I read Matthew 18:3 where the Lord Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The Lord Jesus’ word showed us the standard of entering into the heavenly kingdom—only being an honest person who is simple and lovable can receive the praise of the Lord and be eligible to enter into the heavenly kingdom. Once I understood the Lord’s will, in real life I frequently watched my tongue telling no lies and put much effort into being an honest person in God’s eyes, but often ending in utter failure. Gradually, I lost confidence in being an honest person. Fortunately, some time ago I met a brother in a gospel forum, where we communicated with each other about how to be an honest person. I found he had many of his own insights, from which I realized: My viewpoints that the standard for being an honest person is merely not telling lies are too one-sided. And I also found the path to being an honest person. Later, when I consciously started to practice being an honest person according to his words, I benefited much. Now, I’d like to share it with you.
1. We must give our hearts to God and let God decide all things; we must do everything according to the truth and accept God’s inspection and testing to live in the light.
God says, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins” (Jeremiah 17:10). The Book of Proverbs also says, “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). From these verses, it can be seen that: God is almighty and omniscient. His Spirit observes all. Our every thought and idea as well as each and every move are looked upon in His eyes. Therefore, in order to become an honest person, we should first give our hearts to God and allow God to take over in everything, and accept His observation in all things. That is to say, we should open up our hearts to God and bring our real condition in spirit before Him, seeking whether it conforms with the truth or is in accordance with His will. If it is in accord with the truth, then we put it into practice; if not, we must pray to God in time and forsake anything incorrect within us, keeping ourselves from being dictated or controlled by sin, and then put our hearts right and practice according to God’s requirements. In this way, we are able to live in the light with a generous heart at every moment. For example, when our unbelieving relatives and friends urge us to make some money and get rich, we’ll be somewhat tempted by it and not know what to choose. At this time, we must pray to God to seek whether it is in accord with the truth in doing so, if not, we must give it up. The Lord Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mat 6:24). The Lord’s word showed clearly that we cannot serve God and make a fortune at the same time since making a fortune can’t make us gain His salvation. Only by following God and serving Him can make us receive His salvation. This is God’s will. If we understand God’s will, we will be content with the clothes on our back and the food on our plate, and then take serving God as a top priority in our life and walk the true path of serving God, so that we will live in the care and protection of God and receive the real human life.
Usually, when we pray, read the Bible, attend meetings, or perform service, we should pray to God and accept His observation. Practicing this way is beneficial for us to forsaking the flesh, to practicing truth and to being an honest person. When we accept God’s observation, we will have the strength to forsake the flesh and practice the truth. Even though we have to endure fleshly hardships, we are still willing to practice truth to satisfy God. When we accept God’s observation, we dare not act according to our own pleasure or follow our own preferences when things happen, but rather, we are able to seek God’s will and act in accordance with His requirements, gradually getting transformed and cleansed by God; when we display treacheries or engage in deception, if we practice true acceptance of God’s inspection, we’ll realize: God is almighty and observes all; our actions, thoughts and ideas all go supervised by Him clearly. So if we follow our own will and safeguard our self-interest, we are deceiving ourselves and deceiving God as well, which only arouses His disgust and even offends His disposition. Having realized this, we’ll have strength to forsake the flesh and practice truth to satisfy God, and to be an honest person to shame Satan. For another example, when we are tired with performing service and want to be considerate to our physical bodies or want to be lazy and sneaky, if we can accept God’s inspection and live before Him, we’ll come to realize that our perfunctoriness and craftiness is the behavior of deceiving God, and that deceiving God is an offense of God’s disposition. Unwittingly, we’ll fear God in our hearts and dare not follow our own will to do anything deceiving and offending Him, but practice the Lord’s word to be an honest person and live in the light.
2. In our prayers, we must have a true communion with God, speak heart-to-heart with God, and keep and maintain a normal relationship with Him.
The Lord Jesus taught us, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). It can be seen from it that God loves us worshiping Him with our sincere hearts. So, we must be simple and open ourselves to God to speak heart-to-heart with Him. This is also an aspect of practice in being an honest person.
Then how should we put it into practice? Firstly, we should pray to God and make a vow before Him, “Oh, God, I am a person living in sin. I often tell lies. Today I swear to you, if I tell lies again, may you discipline me and even punish me. I resolve to make a fresh start to be an honest person after Your heart, and to rely on You and worship You sincerely.” After we swear, we can start to practice in our prayers: Speak the truth and the words in our hearts; speak whatever we are thinking, and pray to God about whatever difficulties we have and ask for His help sincerely. This is true prayer, which is based on your real life and without any false disguise.
The Lord Jesus also warned us, “But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like to them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him” (Mat 6:7–8). From the word of the Lord Jesus, we can learn that the Lord Jesus called those who speak repeat and empty words in prayers are Gentiles. He is not pleased with them. So if we have no more words to say in our prayers, then we shouldn’t speak falsehoods or talk nonsense to make long prayers. Our praying to God is not composing an article, and moreover, God doesn’t care how many are the words of our prayers, but cares whether our words are honest, or come from our hearts. This is the key point. God most hates our false, pretended and deceptive prayers. Words do not utter from our hearts all belongs to lies, false words, and the words of deceiving God. All those who act perfunctorily toward God and deceive God in prayers are hypocrites. So, only when we pray to God with honest words or words in our hearts, can our prayers be answered by God and can we keep a normal relationship with God.
3. We must ensure that we speak without lies and impurities, keep no craftiness or deceits in our hearts, simply lay ourselves bare, and have normal interpersonal relationships with others.
The Lord Jesus said, “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Mat 5:37). God’s essence is faithful and holy. Therefore we also must base our words on facts, telling them like they are, rather than going against conscience to speak.
In order to resolve the problem of telling lies, we must first resolve the problem of our intentions. Mouth is the door of the heart. Much of the time, we tell lies under the reign of incorrect intentions, hoping to keep our vanity, fame and status or our personal profit. If we speak in proper intentions or objectives, we will accept God’s observation and speak the truth and the words in our hearts. For instance, recently we didn’t spread the gospel nor bear fruits due to our fleshly matters, yet then when brothers and sisters asked us about it, we refused to tell them the truth for fear that they would blame us for shouldering no burdens and we would thus lose face. So, in order not to be looked down upon by them, we spoke in a manner going against our conscience to cheat them, saying that we had spread the gospel but just failed to bear fruits. Actually on that occasion, we should first come before God and pray to Him, “Oh, God, I have been corrupted by Satan too deeply. I often tell lies in order to save my face. After these words, I feel uneasy and fear that brothers and sisters will ask more of the details, and that once I am exposed, they will blame and deal with me. God, I implore You to add to my faith and courage, allowing me to forsake my flesh, practice the truth and be considerate to Your will. No matter how they see me, I’m willing to be an honest person to satisfy You, not maintaining my face any more.” After prayer, we’ll have confidence to speak the truth. Even though sometimes we still focus on our face and don’t dare to speak the truth, yet as long as we pray to God and are willing to practice being an honest person, God will lead us to put it into practice. If we can do like this frequently, we will have a normal relationship with other people.
4. We must act with principles and in conformity with the truth, act in a just and honorable manner, and be an upstanding person.
To be an honest person, we should act with principles, not following our own will to do things or relying on Satan’s philosophy or satanic disposition to live. All things we do should be based on the foundation of God’s word. And no matter what we do we should practice the truth and protect the interests of the church. We should not do anything that damage the interests of the church, nor do anything that are not beneficial for the lives of brothers and sisters. We should bring everything we do before God and be an upstanding, just and honorable person.
For instance, sometimes when brothers and sisters’ actions affect our own interest, we therefore want to attack them to their face with Satan’s philosophy “a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye.” At this time, we should be quiet before God, pray to Him and ponder what God says about the truth how to establish normal interpersonal relationships. When we realize that God demands us to love one another and love others as ourselves and to treat brothers and sisters with a heart of loving God, and then we forsake our flesh and practice according to God’s word, we will feel assured and brightened. For another example, when we find the co-workers of the church have jealous disputes with each other, or steal offerings or do something harmful to the profit of the church, we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to these things, or act like it has nothing to do with ourselves, nor be ruled by status and fame, but instead, we should stand resolutely on God’s side and safeguard the interests of the church. Only in this way can we become an honest person acting with principles.
If we practice according to these four ways above, we will live out the likeness of an honest man with purity and loveliness, and then entering into the heavenly kingdom will be not difficult.
This is a special gift the Lord gives to me. I keep practicing like this each day and really get some good results—my lies get much fewer. I feel much more assured and peaceful than before. Thank Almighty God!
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