Perspective

How do you handle deception? I’ve never met anyone who wants to be on the receiving end of a lie. No one. And discovering that you actually believed a lie is even worse, especially when it came from someone you trusted, whom you thought cared about you. Not only do you discover the lie itself, but you also learn that the person who lied to you has little, if any, respect for you. That hurts. But what about self-deception? Is that any different? Is it any easier? When truth is staring you in the face, but you dismiss it because it’s inconvenient, painful, embarrassing, or hard, what happens when that truth is finally revealed and you can’t ignore it anymore? That’s when you realize you only have yourself to blame for the mess you’ve gotten yourself into. What then? So many people are going to be in that predicament eventually because they would rather believe in Satan’s easy lie of self-rule, rather than the hard, uncomfortable truth of God’s holy rule.

Looking at the big picture, when all is said and done, it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe that Jesus is Lord. Disbelief does not alter God’s existence. He is still God. He is still in control. His Plan will still work out exactly as He has already determined. (Spoiler alert, God wins in the end). But let’s look at a smaller picture. Your personal eternity.

Think about how slow childhood feels when you are still a child, but how fast it seems to have come and gone once you are an adult. Then you have adulthood for what feels like a long, long time, if you are fortunate. But, what if…? What if adulthood is actually passing you by as quickly as childhood, but you won’t realize it until you move into the next, and final, phase—eternity. Eternity is forever. Let that sink in—F O R E V E R. That is a long time, by anyone’s standards. And once you are there, that’s it. No more chances. If you don’t have an eternal perspective, and aren’t giving any serious thought to where you want to be F O R E V E R, then maybe today is the day you need to change things up a bit.

Or maybe you are just an unfettered soul, living for the moment, one day at a time. You think that what happens after you die is a moot point. Even if there is a hell, who cares, right? There are plenty of jokes about how much wicked fun sinners will have in hell, so, Party On! You just want to be your own god while here on earth for maybe 60-80 years. I get it. I don’t care much for someone else telling me how to live my life, either. And it’s comforting to believe the easy lie that says life can be whatever you want it to be, with no consequences. But what if your time on earth is just a warm up for eternity, and hell is not only very real, but it isn’t exactly the celebration Satan wants you to think it is (Matthew 13:41-42)? What if the joke is actually on you? Satan is, after all, the father of lies (John 8:44). He is a master gaslighter, always seeking to convince us that what we instinctively know to be true is actually not true, and that a little self-deception is harmless. Check out Genesis 3, and see how that worked out for Adam and Eve.

But let’s say that you do believe in Jesus. You good with that? How does your belief look to your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers? How does it look to God? Satan believes in Jesus, too (James 2:19). Yet he schemes against Him at every turn. Satan wants to be worshipped. He wants to be a god. He wants to be in control (Matthew 4:1-11). And we all know how his story ends (Revelation 20:7-10). Obviously, just knowing who Jesus is won’t win you points with God. You also have to actually trust in Him, which alters your life, inside and out. And trusting in Jesus, while satisfying, is also hard. Jesus lived out this truth and even warned us about it (Matthew 10:16-25). Sometimes the difficulty comes from our internal struggles against sin, sometimes it comes from the world, and sometimes it comes from everywhere at once (ask me how I know this!). Being human, sometimes we will triumph, and sometimes we will fall. But difficult times are when the so-called rubber meets the road, and you learn in your heart what you really believe and in whom you really trust. When is the last time you talked to God? When is the last time you listened to Him? All still good? I hope so.

So, what’s your perspective? Ultimately, it comes down to one of two choices: do you believe Satan’s easy lie and live life on your own terms, with a finite, worldly perspective; or do you believe God’s hard truth and live life on His terms, with an eternal, heavenly perspective? That’s it. Either way, eternity awaits.

Choose wisely.