Don’t Deceive Your Own Heart

James 1:26
If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

To walk by faith, you must believe in your heart what God’s Word says, but if you deceive your own heart, you will not have faith in God. James tells us we must deal with our tongue to keep from deceiving our hearts. If we speak contrary to God’s Word, we convince our heart God’s Word is not true, which leads to deception.

To change our words, we must change our thinking for our thoughts will determine what we believe, and what we believe will come out of our mouth. There are three primary influences that wrongly affect our thinking. They are observation, association, and falsification. Observation means what we look at or focus our attention on, and we must guard against doing so with things contrary to God’s Word.

The second thing that affects our thinking is associations. Scripture teaches us to choose our friends carefully for even the wicked will lead you astray. The third area is falsification, which refers to false teachings from God’s Word where people are not taught the truth but are taught man-made religion instead. So, to guard your heart from deception you must address observations, associations, and falsifications. Right thinking leads to right believing, right believing leads to right speaking, and right speaking will bring right results in your life.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas