day no. 17,263: deceived about deception

“Damnation is a function of loving a lie, preeminently the lies you tell yourself. Self-deception is the prince of all deceptions. The wrath of God is seen in this, when God gives people over to what they have loved all along.” — Douglas Wilson, Mines of Difficulty

Do not be deceived, you can deceive yourself. If you think that you can't, then you are deceived about the nature of yourself and the nature of deception.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 

You are not the expert on you, your Creator is. And He has told you that your heart is deceitful. You think and feel things that are not true. You believe things that wrong. You call some good things "evil" and you call some evil things "good." But how would you know if you were doing that?

James 1:22-25

Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Do you believe things that you are not doing? Do your actions betray your "beliefs." When they do, is it because your actions misrepresent you or because your beliefs are not what you think they are?

Deuteronomy 11:16

Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived.

The first step is realizing that you could be deceived. The next step is finding a standard of truth and purity against which to measure yourself.

James 1:25

Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

The Word of God is a perfect mirror. It will tell you who you really are. In its reflection, will see an accurate picture. So, read the Word of God and know the truth and it will set you free.