I. Prayer to enter the Lord’s presence:
Be still for a moment. “Lord, I give the day that is now past to you. It is yours. I give the day that is to come to you; help me to see where you are working and to join you there. Speak to me during these moments. I commit them and myself to you.”
II. Prayer of Confession:
“Lord, you are faithful to forgive me and cleanse me of my sin when I confess it to you. I confess my sin(s) of ______________. Thank you for forgiveness.” (1 John 1:9)
III. Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Choose to be thankful, speak out loud of what God has done.
“Thank you, Father, for _________________. Fill my heart and my mouth with gratitude throughout this day.”
IV. Scripture Reflection
Read: Proverbs Chapter 19
Reflect:
Proverbs 19:5, 9
5 A false witness will not go unpunished,
and one who utters lies will not escape.
9 A false witness will not go unpunished,
and one who utters lies perishes.
If you casually read through Proverbs 19, you can easily miss that verse 5 and 9 are essentially the same verse! So that begs the question, why state it twice? Apparently, the writer wants us to understand the severity of lying! It’s one of the Ten Commandments given to Moses: “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16 NLT)
This proverb is talking about giving false witness in the legal justice system. We’ve talked about this previously, how one even raises their right hand and swears to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But if we stop at this point, then we miss the implications for our own lives. And that implication is this: we should be honest in our public and private statements.
Our lives are not separated into private and public; we don’t live two-story lives! Our private and public lives are intertwined with each other. To do one thing in our private lives affects our public lives. And sadly, if we’re honest with ourselves and others, we’d have to admit we are guilty of giving false testimony.
So, what is false testimony? Well, it’s deception. It’s when we decide to leave part of a story out so we don’t look bad. Sometimes it’s just telling half-truths or twisting the facts to make the situation more in our favor. And sometimes, it’s just outright making something up. Here’s an example of how we do this. Once Terry asked me to schedule a meeting, but we were about 10 days out from when the meeting was to take place. I replied and said, “As the day gets closer, I’ll send an invite out to the guys who need to be at the meeting.” The day before the meeting, Terry texted me and said, “Jim, will you send an invite to the guys?” I replied, “Yep, I was planning on it this morning.” The truth is, I had forgotten! I wasn’t planning on it. The only reason I remembered was because Terry asked me to send it out. Have you ever done anything like that?
Respond:
False testimony—deception—may be a way of life for many people, but not for God’s people. Don’t let it be part of your life. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.
V. Prayer for others:
Pray specifically for the concerns of your life and the lives of others.
VI. Prayer of commitment:
“Lord God, I commit to love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind and to love my neighbor as myself. Empower me today to love you and others with everything that I am.” (Luke 10:27)
This Week’s Scripture Memory:
Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.