First, we should start from being honest in prayer. The Lord Jesus said, “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24). As we can see from the Lord’s words, the first step to being honest is to speak to God sincerely from the heart in prayer and tell Him of our true state and troubles, instead of praying for others to hear or saying nice-sounding and false words to deceive God. However, in real life, although we often say in prayer that we wish to seek to love the Lord all our lives, yet in working and expending for Him, we focus on winning the esteem and admiration of brothers and sisters and treasure status and fame rather than sincerely love and satisfy the Lord. Sometimes, we pray saying that we’ll follow the Lord all our lives no matter what the situation, but we misunderstand and blame Him, and even betray Him in trials. And so on. All these prayers in which we make empty promises and speak boastfully to trick the Lord are not praised by Him. God is holy, so if we always trick God like this, we will surely be detested by God and abandoned by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to become honest people, first of all, we should practice speaking the truth from our hearts to God in a forthright and sincere manner when praying to Him, tell Him of our difficulties and the corruption we expose, and accept His examination of our every word. And we should do what we have promised to God and make every effort to satisfy Him.
Second, we must tell the truth and abandon lies. The Lord Jesus said, “But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil” (Matthew 5:37). The Lord requires that we be honest in our words, calling a spade a spade and speaking accurately—this is the behavior of an honest person. In our daily life, however, we often say some words that are inaccurate and inconsistent with the facts to protect our own interests, dignity, or status. For example, sometimes we say words contrary to our convictions to flatter, fawn upon and suck up to others; sometimes, in order not to be looked down on by others, we hide the facts and say some words of exalting ourselves; etc. So then, how can we resolve the problem of lying to become honest people? We should first make strict demands of ourselves and accept God’s scrutiny to examine whether every word we say is in line with the facts and whether it contains personal motivations and impurities. If it does, we should pray and forsake ourselves; if we have told lies, we should lose no time to correct them and be able to open up and lay ourselves bare. By always practicing this way, we’ll be lying less and less and our actions and behavior will conform more to the Lord’s will.
Third, when performing work in the church, we should do it with all our heart and mind, and not act perfunctorily to deceive God. The Lord Jesus required that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38). As Christians, we should accomplish God’s commissions with all our heart and mind for the sake of loving and satisfying God, and not deal with Him perfunctorily. However, when doing church work, as soon as something involves our own interests and requires us to suffer and pay a price, we care for our flesh and so just go through the motions without focusing on results, thus failing to resolve problems. This is fooling and deceiving God. So, if we want to become honest people praised by God, we should resolve the problem of doing church work perfunctorily. On the one hand, we should often examine whether we have thoughts about just going through the motions and whether we have been in a state of being slipshod. On the other hand, we should frequently pray to God, accept His scrutiny and the supervision of our brothers and sisters, and give our all to do the work commissioned by God. Practicing this for a while will help us become less perfunctory.
Fourth, we must give our true hearts to God and submit to His orchestrations and arrangements—this is the most crucial practice in regard to being an honest person. God says, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. However, in vain do they worship Me” (Mark 7:6–7). As we can see, God doesn’t want us to pay lip service to our belief and worship but wants us to give our hearts to Him completely and expend for Him. No matter whether we receive blessings or meet with disaster, our desire to believe in and follow God can’t change and we must be able to submit to His sovereignty and arrangements. For instance, when Job lost his wealth and children and was covered in boils, he still maintained his purity and stood witness for God. Then there was Abraham. When God asked him to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering, he didn’t argue with or complain against God, but instead was willing to bear great pain to return his son to God. Job and Abraham gave their true hearts to God and are honest people in God’s eyes. So, to be an honest person who delights God, no matter what trials occur and no matter whether blessings or disaster come to us, we should seek God’s will and obey His orchestrations and arrangements without blaming Him.
As long as we constantly practice and enter in according to the above four principles, we will finally become an honest person in whom God delights, and obtain God’s praise and blessings.
All the glory be to God!
