1 John 3:4-9

"Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 1 John 3:4-9


It is so easy to be deceived. Daily we are deceived by false advertising, by stories in the media, and by so many other sources. With all these mixed messages going on around us it is incredibly easy to lose site of the life we have as God's children. We lose site of His love, His mercy, His grace. We lose site of what it means to have a relationship with God.

Once we lose site of those things that are of God we so readily begin believing the lies we hear around us. We begin believing them and then repeating them to ourselves over and over again.

"Youre not worth it."

"You're not good enough."

"You're a failure."

"You can't get beyond your past."

The lies seem to come at us from many different directions. We hear them at work, thru acquaintances, the media, etc. Ultimately, however, they all come from only one place... one person... Satan. Satan tries to convince us in many different ways that we are not worthy of God's love; of God's grace. And, if we're not worthy of God's love and grace, what does it hurt to sin? It shouldn't matter because we're no good anyway. Right?

There couldn't be a more untruthful thought. We are all worthy of God's love and of God's grace. No matter our history and no matter our sins. We are all worthy. If we actively choose to follow Jesus and to accept Jesus and his teachings as a very real part of our life, He will destroy the work Satan has done in our lives.

Verse 7 tells us"...let no one deceive you...". We need to stay focused on God and not on Satan and all those lies he places in front of us that draw us away from God. If we keep our focus on God, no one will be able to deceive us... God will show us the truth. He will show us the way.

It reminds me of the song "Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns. God's voice, the voice of truth, tells us a completely different story. God's story brings no deceit. If we choose to listen to God's voice, there will be no deceit. The works of Satan will be destroyed.