Today’s Devotion
Topic: Lying To God
Text: Acts 5: 3a, 4c
Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit. You have not lied just to human beings but to God. Amen!
Who will think anyone would like to lie to an all-knowing God? Yet we do all the time. Everyday that we are not truthful to our own vows and commitments to God, but pretend to be doing so for public favour, we are lying to God. And oh the spectacle that God should see us, His beloved children whom He has purchased unto Himself, assume He does not know much and therefore try to outsmart Him.
In Acts 4: 32- 35, we learn that “all the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.”
“Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.’” (Acts 5:1-4)
People of God, Ananias decided to do what all the believers with great possession did, but he had not yet understood the motive that made the rest give freely to support the needy. It was from a conviction that all they had was from God for the benefit of all, including the needy. It was also an act of faith that as they give, God is able to replenish.
Ananias obviously had not come to terms with these basic truths, so he tried to help himself “in the dark”, with the consent of his wife and came out pretending to have offered all as everyone else did. But God sees everywhere and knows everything.
Great man, you chose the wife of your youth and brought her before God and vowed to love and adore only her. Why then are you cheating on her in the dark, and coming out in the open to pretend that you are as loving of your wife as all the others portray?
Dear student, why do you pray and ask God to help you through each examination and vow your commitment to Him, yet you cheat and copy the whole time while pretending before others that you studied as much?
Young men and women, why do you pretend to honour your fathers and mothers so your days may be long, yet do everything wrong in the dark that will bring no honour to them except shame. Then you pretend to be like every other obedient sons or daughters who fear the Lord and honour the elderly.
And to you, employee — you trusted God for this job in prayer and vowed to give your all when employed. Now see; it’s as if you have forgotten that God even exists — you do what you like and pretend before your employers that you are the best staff around.
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