Lies - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

You, o Lord, know the hearts of all. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts?
Acts 1:24; Matthew 9:4

Lies
A comedian once said that mankind had been given words, so that all can disguise their true thoughts. To be sure, dissimulation is a universal principle without which, man being what he is, social life would hardly be conceivable. There is the lie of the criminal who obstinately denies everything, even the weightiest charges. There is the art of the diplomat who adorns the worst treachery with clever phraseology. There is the businessman with a free and easy conscience, who, at every step, is out to deceive his clients. There is also the white lie that the doctor expresses to conceal from the patient his true condition, and the reticence that glosses over the blunderer's impoliteness.

What is then to be said of the ease with which we endeavour to hide from ourselves our own moral state? Everyone excuses his own faults and considers every possible way of evasion from owning up to wrongdoing. Scripture states however: "The heart is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? I, the LORD" (Jeremiah 17, 9.10).

God reads our thoughts like an open book. We cannot conceal from Him what we hide from others. What He demands of us is to allow His light to penetrate our hearts and reveal precisely what we are, so as to lead to confess: "I am a sinner, and my only resource is your grace."