Deceit – Tool of Wicked

Wicked are full of it

Romans 1:29  

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,

Device it

Job 15:35  

They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.”

Psalms 35:20  

They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land.

Psalms 38:12  

Those who seek my life set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they plot deception.

Utter it

Psalms 10:7  

His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.

Psalms 36:3  

The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.

Work at it

Proverbs 22:18  

For it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips.

Family Expectations

I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:18

Many of us have a fantasy that our family will be like the Waltons, an expectation that our friends will be members of our family. Jesus didn’t have that expectation. Look how Jesus defined his family: “My true brother and sister and mother are those who do what God wants” (Mark 3:35).

When Jesus’ brother didn’t share his convictions, he didn’t try to force them. He recognized that his spiritual family could give him what his physical family didn’t…

We can’t control how our family responds to us.  Our hands are tied.  We have to move beyond that expectation that if we do good, people will treat us right. The fact is they may and they may not.

Let God give you what your family doesn’t.

And don’t lose heart. God still changes families. –Max Lucado