In scripture we are told that we are able to call those things that be not as though they were. Let's meditate on that scripture: call those things that be not as though they were. In our world, in my finite world, that amounts to lying. Yes, lying. It is my contention that the Bible tells us to lie. Much of the character traits that we attribute to godliness is the result of our own imagination in many ways. Really? It is the way that we think of things that give them their meaning. You may think that you are lying when you tell someone that you are definitely going to do something, or you may think you are not lying when you tell someone you're definitely going to do something and you don't do it. My assessment is that if you tell me that you are definitely going to do something, that translates to me as you definitely won't do it.
What does all this mean? Recently, I found myself promising a client of mine that I would get something to him by the end of the day. Now if you're in business you know that "By the end of the day" is one of those phrases that really sounds nice. It has a nice ring to it, and I like saying it. "Oh, I'll have that to you by the end of business today." It's one of my favorite things to tell my clients.
Now as for lying, when I don't consciously know that I'm going to do something by the end of the day, then I'm lying, and you are lying too. When you tell me that you are definitely going to do something and it's not clear to you that you are going to do it, you haven't made a decision that you're going to do it, then you too are lying.
Now lying, and that's just our term for it, God probably calls it something else, by any other means, is something that we can use to hurt others, we can use to deceive others. The Bible doesn't teach us to deceive others, but it does teach us to call those things that be not as though they were. Let's just say that you were to use lying for your good and not to deceive others.
One way that lying can be used for your good is that when you have a tendency to think that someone is trying to hurt you, then tell yourself that they're not. Because you can't read somebody's mind. You don't know why they're doing what they're doing. It may hurt you, that is true, but whether or not they are trying to hurt you is something that you have no idea about.
One of my favorite leadership trainers is a lady named Byron Katie. Byron Katie uses four questions to assess any situation that brings you anxiety. The first of these questions is: "Is that true?" The next question is: "How can you know that's true?" If you can't know something is true, it doesn't matter whether you know it's true or not. If you treat it as true, it may as well be true. The other questions are not relevant to this discussion.
I'm urging you as an extraordinary coach to get present to this tendency to lie and only lie to yourself, and once again, if you don't know something to be true, maybe you're lying to yourself, and maybe you're not. When we speak things in faith, we are lying. When we say things to help ourselves move forward, we are lying. God loves us whether we lie or not. Any meaning that's given to a lie that you tell is a meaning that's created by the person listening. In the business world, many people aspire to be great, many people to make a phenomenal income. They're told to set goals. They're told to set their goals as in the now. For instance, rather than saying "I'm going to make a million dollars this year," you ought to say, "I make a million dollars this year." Now if you don't have a plan in place to make a million dollars really, aren't you lying?
Now this use of the term lying may be extreme, but the point that I want to make is that everything is about you no matter all the platitudes you hear saying it's about someone else. When you lie to yourself, you do it often enough, you will come to believe it. In our society there are many lies that have come to be true in the minds of millions of people simply because they were repeated time and time again. Repeat the lie that you want to be true to yourself over and over and over again and marvel at it when it comes to past.
This whole blog originated when I recently told my client that I was going to tell him about whether or not my software provided him with a membership site, and I would tell him that before the end of the day. I didn't tell him that before the end of the day. In fact, I didn't think about it again until this morning, even though when I said it I meant well. Guard the every word given to others. Be mindful of the fact that others rely heavily on what you say. Say things to yourself before you say it to others just to get used to how it sounds. If you want something to be true then say it's true. Say I have integrity. Say I am faithful. Say I walk in love. Say I'm the healed and not the sick. Say I leave great treasures for my children. Those things may be a lie now, but it's a lie that you want to believe.
Finally, when God says say those things that be not as though they were, that is a lie that you are really, really excited about telling yourself. If this blog has helped you, tell somebody. Until next time, have a good time.
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