DEVOTIONAL SCRIPTURE
“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.” Luke 12:1-3
MEDITATION
There is so much exaggeration and embellishment in our society you would not believe. You’d be surprised to know how much of what people say about themselves is either embellished or complete fiction, especially among those seeking to sell themselves or a product. People exaggerate their knowledge, experience, accomplishments, and compensation. They call themselves #1 bestselling authors of nonexistent list and serial entrepreneurs that are really just hustling from one idea to the next. Folks just make it up as they go with little or no actual knowledge or experience to support what they say of themselves. It is even more prevalent among those in Christendom. We hear of leaders exaggerating their roles and membership, they claim to have several churches with mega numbers, but in reality their leading one church with ten members. We see praise and worship is hollow and dead, instead of dealing with the problem, we fake it all the more. We present “sing it like you mean it!”as the solution. When we find ourselves falling short in our love relationships with each other, we just “fake it until we feel it.” But is this the kind of worship our Father wants—contrived and forced and phony? I’m sure some of you are wondering why people do that? I would attribute it to the “fake it ‘til you make it.’ belief. I know you’re asking, what’s wrong with that? Everyone does it. How else do you get ahead? Isn’t it just “faithing” it?
But I have questions. Since when did our Father ordain phoniness? Once you ‘fake it till you make it’: at first you pretend or you’re faithing it, does it ever turn into the real thing? What happens to your soul in the process of faking? Who are we trying to impress when we pretend to be fruitful when we are in a barren land? What do we gain by exaggerating and glossing over the trials to appear perfect? What do the people profit when we preach, teach and hype them up about faith when our own faith with works is dead? Does our Father not expect us to wait upon Him rather than playact if He is not present? Does He not expect us to be weak so that His strength can be shown? Since when does He like ritual and “going though the motions”? Does He not require us to cry out to Him when life overwhelms us? Are we exempted from the need to weep, be in need and lament?
Believe it or not, we modern Believers have been led to believe that this playacting, faking it or the more biblical term hypocrisy is actually a virtue and way to manifest the promises of God.
I will admit there is a fine line between faking and faith. But when we learn the truth of scripture, we realize that there are times that we are just simply human, we will struggle and in these moments we grow closer to Jesus and our faith is strengthened — and that transforms us in every good way. But if instead of growth we seek to clean the outside of the cup, to give the appearance of being spiritual instead of becoming truly spiritual, (Matthew 23:23-28) it’s then that we turn into Pharisees, legalists and hypocrites. And it is no good saying that we can combine the two because it can’t be done. We should transform when the Lord leads us to transform through the truth. If on the other hand our changes are superficial attempts to please what we suppose others want us to do without any concern for growth, we than become a hostage to those people and even our own pride and egos, rather than responding to the Lord and His Word. And beside faking is hard work and stressful. This is a fleshly attempt to do what only the Holy Spirit can produce in us and there is nothing fake about Christ in us!
I personally never bought into the ‘fake it till I make it” belief. I work to live my life as an open, authentic vessel that my Father can use for His glory. If I am struggling, I acknowledge the struggles as His power works best in my weakness. So I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. I don’t wallow in it. I recognize it, assess it and then allow my Father’s Spirit to come in so that I can overcome it. If I don’t know the answer, I admit to it and seek my Father for the answers. Just this past Sunday in our “For Your Soul” worship, I did not have a message for the people. Physically I was not feeling well and spiritually I did not hear a message. I had to be real with the people and do what my heart said do, and that was to pray and seek His face. In that moment I recognized by humanness when I acknowledge that I did not have a sermon and we are going to hit our knees. I didn’t dress it up. I didn’t hype the people up to take the attention off of me. I became authentic and vulnerable to allow my faith to grow and His Spirit to flow. But you see I made up mind when I took this assignment that for the sake of the form of things, human convention or pride, I will not fake it as I know the truth of the Word, there’s no future in faking — what is hidden is always revealed and uncovered.
The bottom line is that hypocrisy is like an infecting yeast that will ruin the whole batch of dough, if allowed from the outside in — now our Father is calling for a salvation that comes from the inside out. True change comes from the inside out and in this month we learned in our Friday Bible Study that the Father is challenging each of us to rid ourselves of the”fake it till you make it ” mask and get real. The Word says that, “…God knows our hearts.” (Luke 16:15) And in this season he calling us to the “heart” of the matter. We are being called to deal with the real strongholds, hinderances and issues in our lives. We are being challenged to acknowledge that we are clueless on how to achieve greater, that we are not in control, our marriage is in shambles, our finances are not where they need to be, and there are places in our lives in which have struggled physically or emotionally generationally. And this is not being faithless, it’s being authentic and saying we need His grace and His power in our weakness.
Once we are authentic, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and open to get the real grace from God to “do His will and do His good purpose” by the power of the “Christ in us” by the Holy Spirit. Let us turn to the wisdom of Father and be diligent and obedient so we don’t have to fake anything. Once we get real and yield to Him, that’s when the Christ in us and His grace gives us the power and the faith to live a for real successful, peaceful, and abundant life.
PRAYER CONFESSION
Father, today examine my heart and check my motives. Shine Your Light to reveal where I have faked it to keep up appearances, modified my behavior to create my reality and not allowed myself to rest in Your Spirit and Your Grace so that I can be raised up with You. My desire is to be the real me that you created and to be firmly rooted and grounded in You to produce fruit in my ordained, due season, in Jesus Name, Amen.
Contributed by: Pastor Yolanda Douthit
If this devotional has encouraged you, share with your friends and family. Click the social share button or leave a comment in the box below for Pastor Yolanda.