22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal truthfully are His delight.

Proverbs 12:22 NKJV

I was never worried about Big Brother watching me. I had decided in my heart before it was even a thing, that I would always tell the truth. So when it started to cause anxiety among those around me, I was at rest. These days, when you mention a product, an ad appears in our phones and social media. Big Brother is now not only watching, but listening. So is God! Above any fear of man, any fear of technology, we should have a healthy fear of God. 

We should be being honest with ourselves, and Him. Dishonesty delays intimacy. Somewhere along the way, there were situations in my life where I learned to be a people pleaser to tell them what I knew they wanted to hear to keep the peace. Although it wasn’t peace, really. I would appease the person to keep the veneer that if everyone got their way, there would be peace. This was not the case. I lived in a place where my fear would compel me to quickly assess the dynamics of a situation and submit to the will of the other person so that they would never be mad or disappointed in me. I had decided as a child that I would avoid all conflict by just agreeing with people and never speak out my own opinion. What did my opinion matter if it was going to cause division? That was a big lie I was believing. Because after a while, the world I had created stole my voice. It stole my creativity to come up with the very solutions to the problems I was blindly agreeing to in my one man army to battle for counterfeit peace. 

Then there was a shift. I became bold in telling the truth no matter what the consequences. That self protection that was disguised as peace making broke apart like a chocolate orange waiting for me to indulge in a new reality of living a life of bold truth. My opinion matters. My voice matters. If I yield to a lie, I am empowering darkness, and tying God’s hands to move freely in my life to be my protector and deliverer. My self defense was a barrier to being whole and really loving others. My self deception while believing that I was being honest was preventing me from moving forward in pure agape love. 

I took baby steps to kill the dragon of people pleasing, and I didn’t do it by myself! Once I saw the lie coming, that band aid dispenser to calm the dragon from breathing fire, I paused. I let myself think about the truth of the situation, and I said that. It was not my normal, and I didn’t realize until now that my heart posture to always be honest did not match what came out of my mouth in the guise of self protection. I felt brave to speak the truth and let the consequences be what they would. I know now that God goes before me and us always. That He will protect me and guide me into the messy middle to defend me and protect me no matter what. Another shift came when the more I told the truth, the more others around me started to trust me. I think as a society, we deal in lies as currency to test the waters of who is trying to lie to us. But when we live at that level of suspicion, we are not honoring the other person by establishing a trust from the first words we speak to each other. Some lie out of fear of punishment in order to avoid known consequences of abuse or repeated lies from others. My faith is my armor now. And when I express the truth without filtering it through what the outcome will be or how the circumstance will be when I try to control it, Heaven stands behind me and champions me and protects me from the fiery darts. I don’t have to be under any fear of man because that is a counterfeit fear. I only want to please God, and live in a way that honors and glorifies Him. We can’t look past the sinner in front of us when we are aware of the lies we know they’re telling us. Once you become a curator of telling the truth no matter the cost, the lies of the enemy become crystal clear and you dethrone his voice in your life. No longer must you keep track of the last lie you told, but you get to walk in the freedom Christ died for. When we lie, when we gossip, when we live in deception, we empower chaos and are essentially asking Jesus for a refund of the price He paid. Fear established in the love of God is much different than the fear of man that binds us to ourselves as god. True freedom comes from relying on Him, and doing our part to walk in the empowering grace He gives us to be the salt and the light we are called to be.