Being Honest With Yourself - Episode 18

We are not always honest with ourselves. 

Sometimes, we are living a lie and it can grow worse while we do not allow it to be known.   Our lack of awareness can turn into a Deception in our lives, which can become like a cancer and consume us if not properly addressed. 

Being honest with yourself means being aware of your strengths and weaknesses, your goals and desires, and how you're feeling, even when you don't want to admit it.  It can help you build trust and relationships with others, but it all starts with what you are telling yourself. 

Being honest with yourself can be difficult because the Truth can actually lead to change, and some people may not be ready for that. 

In this episode, Don and Justin talk about how to live a life free from deception and they expose the tactics the enemy may use to keep us from being aware of these falsehoods. 

Transcript

Episode 18 - Being Honest With Yourself

[00:00:00] Justin: Hi, everyone. This is Justin Olbrantz. And this is Don Schaefer. And you are listening to the wise and the wandering podcast for those who know the way and for those who are led astray. And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories, then you're in the right place. So let's dive in.

[00:00:32] Justin: So, Don, what are we going to talk 

[00:00:34] Don: about today? Well, Justin, I think we've got ourselves an interesting one here. Uh, I think we're going to talk a little bit about being honest with yourself, being honest with yourself? Yes. Yes. Being able to, really look at things in an honest way. Cause a lot of times what happens with people is they live a lie.

[00:00:54] Don: They live a life that's not truly honest with themselves as far as what they should or [00:01:00] could be doing. Uh, there's so much out there. That is tainted because I know in scripture, it talks about where Jesus says, I am the truth, the life and the way, and it talks about our adversary being the father of lies.

[00:01:13] Don: And, , what has happened a lot of times in life is we get caught up on it, Justin, you know, we get caught up in this stuff and all of a sudden we're living a lie. You know, it's, it's not the reality of what life 

[00:01:24] Justin: is really meant to be. Yeah, that's a hundred percent true and I would say we're often told not to lie to people and that's the thing is yeah, you shouldn't lie to people I think it's about having integrity in your life is being honest with other people and being honest about Situations that are in your life, but in this specific topic, it's about honesty in all aspects of our life but especially in being honest with ourselves.

[00:01:53] Justin: I think a lot of the times we get into things, and we go through situations in our life, and we go [00:02:00] through patterns and stuff like that, and it all comes down to having some kind of deception in our life. Like you were saying, we live in a world that's full of lies, and it's kind of fake in a way. And there's so many different, uh, inauthentic things that we're surrounded by.

[00:02:18] Justin: And we sometimes find ourselves in situations where we're not completely honest with ourselves about the possible outcomes before getting into them. And that allows us to make the same bad, , decisions and allows us to then make bad habits out of those decisions and stuff like that. But it all comes down to leading a life of honesty.

[00:02:41] Justin: So that's, , that's what we want to talk on today, is how important honesty is in life. Our lives and doing that not only with other people, but understanding that that deception that comes in our lives is toxic and it really is like a, it's like a cancer. [00:03:00] It starts, it can start out small and it turns into something so big.

[00:03:04] Justin: It can, consume your entire life. It can cause illnesses, whatever. It can make you sick. I think I've,, I've even, uh, read it somewhere where it says our secrets make us sick. Yeah. Right. Those things that we, we don't talk about, that we,, we. Push deep down and we keep pushing them down. We keep pushing them down that deception.

[00:03:23] Justin: So, yeah, I think , that's what we want to talk about today is the honesty and. Particular being honest with yourself. Yeah. 

[00:03:31] Don: Yep. That's true. Justin and I know , you know The bible says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free 

[00:03:37] both: Yeah, 

[00:03:38] Don: and a lot of us we get ourselves in life and we're born in life.

[00:03:42] Don: It's interesting You know, there's a nature that we have When we're born into this world when we're young, we don't have to teach our children how to lie You know, they pick this stuff up all by themselves because there's a natural nature Because like if you want to get back into things, you know with adam and eve You know [00:04:00] what they lost was the spirit of god living in their lives and they were a natural human nature so the ways of our adversary The father of lies became a lot of their ways.

[00:04:11] Don: And we're, we're born into this world with that nature until we come to a place where we can find truth and realize that, you know, there's a new nature out there and this nature cleans us up and we have to be honest with ourselves. You know, I need.. I need you, Lord. I need you to clean me up. I need a new birth and I need a divine nature.

[00:04:33] Don: And that's where, when you get to truth, the Bible, the Bible says that God cannot lie. The Bible says God cannot lie. So there is no lying or deceit at all in God and all of His ways or all of His word. His word is right on. You know, 2, 000 years ago, Today, it's the same thing. It's the same thing. It's the same thing.

[00:04:56] Don: And God is trying to show us truth. And [00:05:00] that's where in life right now, a lot of what the lies does, it covers up truth. You know, what people believe in this world, a lot of times is just a flat out lie, but they don't see it. Because the Bible talks about blinders. It says that we get blinders over our eyes.

[00:05:15] Don: It talks about a darkness, you know, and sometimes I think about that so dark, you can't see nothing, you know, we can live life, you know, in the hour, the sun comes up, the light bulb goes on, we see all that, but we don't see the truth because we're living in a darkened state, and that's what, Truth does, it turns the light bulbs on in a spiritual way.

[00:05:36] Don: And what God is trying to do is use his word, and use people like you and I, Justin, to be able to talk about the things of God, and have people open up their eyes and say, Hey, there's a whole lot more. Another thing that really gets me sometimes is people try to lie to themselves and think that there's no, Life after our life on this earth.

[00:05:56] both: Yeah, you 

[00:05:57] Don: know they live that lie. I mean they they want to [00:06:00] extend themselves I you know, I listen to people talk about the going into the future They've got ways that you can live to be a hundred and fifty or maybe two hundred years old I'm sitting there. What good is a hundred and fifty or two hundred years old if it ends at a hundred and fifty And two hundred there is a future future.

[00:06:19] Don: And that's where we live a lie a lot of times thinking that this is it. You know, I just enjoy yourself or make up your own rules. Live your life any way you want to do it. But, but at the end it ends, you know, at the end there is a date, there is a time. 

[00:06:33] Justin: Right. And we lie to ourselves telling ourselves that there is no end.

[00:06:38] Justin: Right. And I think that's, that's kind of the deception there is , there's constantly. Some kind of underlying lie, no pun intended, but there's, there's a lie there that we tell ourselves so long that we eventually start to believe it. And I think that's kind of one of the, uh, tactics of the adversary is to get you to [00:07:00] believe in lies.

[00:07:00] Justin: Like you said, he's the father of all lies. So there's a, There's a deep rooted, like, deception that's been planted into your life that's not necessarily true. That's led you to believe it to the point where it has a lot of baggage, has a lot of maybe emotional trauma, emotional baggage that comes with it.

[00:07:20] Justin: Right. And it's, , It's really not true, but you've allowed yourself to believe that it's true it's a lot of times we go into these scenarios and We we get into certain situations in our life And we're we're led by fear because of that deception So what happens is we don't tell ourselves?

[00:07:39] Justin: Oh, this could go wrong or this could happen or this could happen we lie to ourselves and We don't admit to, we don't acknowledge certain things that could happen by making certain decisions or by getting into certain things so that when things don't work out in the end, we sit there and we wonder why it happened that way.

[00:07:58] Justin: Why does it have to happen to me? [00:08:00] Or, you know, it's almost seems like we're blindsided. Like you were saying, right. With the blinders, we're like blindsided. Not knowing that had we been honest with ourselves about what we were really getting into, we could have saved ourselves a lot of stress. We could have saved ourselves a lot of trauma over the, you know Oh, that's true.

[00:08:17] Justin: All the, all that baggage that came with it. We could have prevented that. It could have been prevented. 

[00:08:21] both: Yep. 

[00:08:22] Justin: And the, the enemy knows this. He knows this, this is part of his plan. And when you understand the way the spirit works, that sense, right? That, that still voice, we talk about it, that, , you know, maybe just that, that thought that's maybe just a little bit more, Um dominant than the rest, you know that when you understand the way the spirit works you can see the way that you can be deceived By the enemy and the spirit because he wants to get you to a place Where you believe in those lies and that you identify with them.

[00:08:57] Justin: He wants you to identify with those It's a [00:09:00] lot of it isn't your identity. He understands how Important your identity is. Yeah, because your identity is You to God. 

[00:09:09] both: You 

[00:09:09] Justin: are a child of God. We're children of God, right? We are, we were created in the image of God. Yeah. So that's our identity. And he wants to take that from us.

[00:09:18] Justin: Yeah. So when you become a believer, you understand that you and you, nobody could take that from you because your identity is in him. 

[00:09:27] Don: That's right. 

[00:09:27] Justin: Right. Your identity is in God. You know, it is in Jesus. Like you're saying it is in the truth. Your identity is the truth. You are the one who embodies, who was an ambassador to God, Jesus Christ.

[00:09:41] Justin: So when you believe in that, the enemy, it's going to send all of this deception into your life. To try to pull you away from the truth. That's true. That's true. 

[00:09:53] Don: That's true And that's where , yeah our identity it's it's amazing how much we've given up our identity what you're [00:10:00] talking about there a little bit And a lot of it's it's with lies, you know lies are We're telling us we're this or that or whatever it is.

[00:10:06] Don: We were meant to be great. We were meant to be wonderful. God has had a tremendous plan for each and every one of us. But it's interesting in this world because there's a lot of other plans that are thrown out there. There's a lot of fictitious stuff. Because I look at, you know, getting into novels and getting into, not saying there's anything wrong with some of that stuff, but getting into even TV programs, not saying there's Anything wrong with some of that stuff, but a lot of times what it does it it feeds us with different thoughts different ideas All of a sudden we we identify with different things and stretch out in different areas.

[00:10:39] Don: We try to find happiness, you know a lot of times the Advertising world says this will make this or they'll put the best looking people with the best clothes And you'll be happy if you have this or drive this car or live in this area But you know you can go after all this Or you can find people who have it all and you find out [00:11:00] they're no happier A lot of them are more miserable than we are, right, you know But god says there is something where true joy can take place You know when we get into his word and into his realm and the way he designed mankind to live When we're honest with ourselves and say hey, you know what?

[00:11:18] Don: I am going to seek a source. I'm going to seek the source of life and try to find out what true joy and true happiness is. And I'm going to not only allow it to be a part of me, I'm not going to live a lie anymore. , I'm going to be honest with myself. I'm going to be honest with everybody around.

[00:11:35] Don: Because I know the Bible talks about a lake of fire. It says, all liars shall be cast into the lake of fire. You know, it talks about this in the book of Revelation of Jesus Christ. But, you know, you look at that. What is the lake of fire? What is hell as far as the Bible is concerned? I think we create our own hell, 

[00:11:54] both: you 

[00:11:54] Don: know by living a lie and doing some of this point 

[00:11:56] both: Yeah, 

[00:11:57] Don: because we struggle in that area and a lot of times the [00:12:00] truth sets us free So we can see things the way they really are and we won't accept this stuff because we realize like you're saying Justin It comes in different colors.

[00:12:09] Don: It comes in different shapes, but a lot of it. It's not real You know, we get ourselves caught up Thinking that this stuff is real. This is what's going to make my life great. This is, I'm going to live forever. No, I, I'm going to have a time where I'm going to pass these times. These moments are ever so precious.

[00:12:27] Don: And that's where I don't want to get myself caught up in a fantasy world where it's not real, where I'm thinking. You know things that are not real that this is what's going to make me happy or this is what I'm living Or I play another role a lot of people get caught up in lies and they're playing another role It isn't really who they are.

[00:12:43] Don: They lie to themselves. Basically. They're living another person's life It's not even them, but they're believing this lie and it's not being honest with yourself, 

[00:12:53] Justin: right? Yeah, and see I can't agree with that more because Most of my life, I've always felt [00:13:00] like, , just different, you know, from other people in the sense that the world is going this way and I want to go that way.

[00:13:06] Justin: In the other direction. 

[00:13:08] both: Yeah, 

[00:13:08] Justin: and almost to the point where I want to lead somewhere else. I want to set trends Somewhere else but I was conformed to the world And that was the issue and the enemy uses that, you know, satan uses that he uses that of you and I think that sense there when you have that sense that you're not supposed to be like Everybody else that is the spiritual sense speaking to you trying to guide you in the right direction 

[00:13:40] both: Yeah, 

[00:13:40] Justin: but in my case, I was always worried about what the world I was being conformed to the world I was always worried about what the world is doing what the next trend is.

[00:13:50] Justin: Yeah, you know, you know Whatever it was considered cool, you know, that's what I wanted to be Because I was conformed to the world. I was, I was riding the carousel, not [00:14:00]realizing that it's all fake, not realizing that the truth is actually out there, not realizing that I'm actually just believing in my own lies, not realizing that I'm a completely different person around when I'm around these people.

[00:14:12] Justin: People when I'm around this person, but then I'm a different person when I'm over, you know, when I'm home alone Or when I'm with my my significant other, you know what I'm saying? So you start putting on you start pretending to be different things almost like The enemy pretends that he's god and he's not actually god.

[00:14:29] both: Yeah, 

[00:14:29] Justin: right. So his goal is to get you to believe to reject Yourself and the way that you reject yourself is by believing in your own lies and not being honest with yourself 

[00:14:40] both: Yeah, 

[00:14:41] Justin: because when you're not honest with yourself and you get yourself into situations You keep going back to that spouse. You keep getting it back into that relationship.

[00:14:49] Justin: You keep going back to those drugs Telling yourself this is going to be my last time and it's not your last time because you were not honest with yourself Right, you get wrapped up in [00:15:00] that you get wrapped up in his web You get wrapped up and you fall for his plans every time. And what it eventually ends into, , it leads you down to a path of rejection.

[00:15:10] Justin: And it's one of two things. You're going to reject yourself and you're going to think of, you're going to use that perpetual cycle of suffering, but you're going to use that, that, uh, that constant use of being dishonest with yourself that left you in that same state of suffering. You're going to use that to Punish yourself.

[00:15:30] Justin: And you're going to think of all these things that allowed that to happen to punish yourself and reject yourself. And the second thing is, is you're going to use that to allow yourself to be rejected by other people. And you're going to allow those lies that were always lies to manifest into your, they're going to, they're now going to manifest themselves to allow yourself to think that you're rejected by everybody else.

[00:15:56] Justin: So you're rejected by yourself and you're rejected [00:16:00] by everybody else. And then what happens? Yeah. 

[00:16:02] Don: Oh yeah. 

[00:16:03] Justin: All, all hope is gone. Right. And that, and, and that's the ultimate plan. So it's, it's understanding. The tactics, it's understanding that and getting ahead of those. That's why we're honest. That's why we have integrity.

[00:16:17] Justin: That's why we need to walk righteously. We do. The Bible talks about being upright. 

[00:16:22] both: Yes. 

[00:16:22] Justin: But it's, , it's one step at a time, but it's,, it's peeling back , those layers, right? Understanding how these tactics work so we can get ahead of them. Oh yeah. 

[00:16:31] Don: That's so true there, Justin, because I think, you know, we live in a society today where we talk a little bit about, you know, we create our own hell, and by not believing the things God would have us to believe, and we get ourselves all messed up, you know, and a lot of times people, you know, they don't know who they're supposed to be.

[00:16:47] Don: You know, the world says you need to look like this, you need to be this, you got to be talented in this, you got to know this, wear 

[00:16:52] both: this, eat this, yeah, you 

[00:16:54] Don: got all this sort of thing, , but that's a big lie, that's a big lie that people believe and get sucked into, [00:17:00] and a lot of times people live a life, and I don't know if that's any of you guys out there, but, A lot of times people feel like they are really not what they're meant to be.

[00:17:07] Don: They're feel like, you know, uh, I mean, they're really depressed on who they are and what they're doing and what they've become. But, you know, , I, I always tell people, God had a drawing board. He knew what he was doing. He actually knew what sex you're supposed to be. You know, he wasn't trying to confuse anybody, you know, uh, and that's where a lot of times people don't have any understanding of who they're meant to be, what they're supposed to look like.

[00:17:29] Don: So they lived in a daydream. life where if we could accept who we are and God created us to be exact, you are beautiful exactly the way you are. You don't, you don't have to be nothing else, but what God created in you. And once we can get, let's say, over that and realize that life is meant to be enjoyed in him and being who we are and not believing all these Lies that go out.

[00:17:56] Don: I know I heard an interesting comment this past week. It said [00:18:00] that young people are very sensitive and i'm just going to use this to bs You know, and that's where they know what's going on Garbage is and I know I'm myself. I don't just and I we talked about this a lot But we talked about having a message that can reach people with truth that it isn't something that you know People are gonna smell this and say hey, you know what these guys don't know what they're talking about But something that can cut through the lies and break through life because these lies are powerful.

[00:18:28] Don: They got holes on their heads , you know, the Bible says that Jesus came to set the captives free. A lot of the captives in our world right now are people who believe a lie. And I, I know I talk with people once in a while and they talk about different things and say, you know, basically that God made a mistake.

[00:18:45] Don: I don't believe God made a mistake. I know God designed everything the way it was built. birthed into this world that we got a group of people out there that are saying we need to be different. No, you're believing a lie, you know, and that's where people, they're not [00:19:00] happy, you know, and it's a small percentage, but you know, it's, it's changed the whole culture in our country and our whole world.

[00:19:06] Don: These young people, a lot of the, the stuff they're doing right now. far as, uh, snatch and grab and, you know, all the violence and stuff, they're just crying out. They're crying out for the truth, but yet the truth isn't there for them. So they're believing a lie and they're walking this totally confused, not knowing what the truth might be.

[00:19:26] Justin: Yeah, and it's so easy to not understand the truth when you're surrounded by lies because like you said, you're, you're living in darkness. You know, you can't see anything. It's hard to see if there's any light there That's why it's hard to even see if god exists. It's hard to see if we even have a god in this world Yeah for a lot of people that don't understand because they're living in darkness.

[00:19:48] Justin: Yes One one way of getting out of that Darkness is by surrounding yourself with honesty because the lies that you tell the people when you [00:20:00] Understand the opposite is true in your mind when you understand that the opposite is true in your heart. It's going to eat at you 

[00:20:06] both: Yeah, 

[00:20:07] Justin: because you know, it's not true Deep down, you know, it's not true the words you said to somebody It might be easy to say something to somebody those words that you said to somebody it might be easy to say that But what you're going to find out is you know that to not be true Yeah, so when you know that it's going to it's going to create a toxicity in your life Oh, yeah, and it's going to come back.

[00:20:30] Justin: It's going to Fester these things do happen over time when they're not properly dealt with And that dishonesty is it's going to backfire on you. So whether it happens in one year, in five years, in 25 years, you got to curb it. And you have to start by making sure that you get rid of the deception.

[00:20:54] Justin: You got to make sure that there is no deception in your life in all ways that you can, [00:21:00] because there's going to be so many ways that deception can infiltrate into your life. Yeah. Especially as a believer when you say that you believe in Jesus You now say that you believe in the truth. That's right.

[00:21:13] Justin: Because Jesus said he's the truth the way in life That's when you believe in the truth Guess what the father of lies is gonna come into your life and he's gonna try to attack Oh, yeah, and what he's going to do is there's going to be Events that you are triggered by, you know, and not even things that you're triggered by, but there's trigger events You know that when they happen in your life there's certain things that happen that cause you to go into a pattern into a spiral and then you always Respond the same way each time.

[00:21:43] Justin: Yeah, and the reason you do that is because you're predictable And for a lot of people People out there, they are predictable, right? Even their spouses would say that they're predictable. Yeah. Not saying that's a bad thing, but these are the tactics that , the adversary uses against you because he wants to [00:22:00] keep you predictable.

[00:22:01] Justin: That's right. That's right. Seriously. So the moment that you get out of that state of being predictable, that predictability is when you can start to fight back. Yeah. Because when this happens to you, you would always go and call this person, or you would always go back to this person, or you'd always go back to this way of medicating through the situation.

[00:22:24] Justin: That was your trigger event. Once you can understand that, you can, you Get yourself to a point where you're you're unpredictable. Yeah, so so the enemy he doesn't know what's going to happen to you So when you get to a point where you feel like you've lost all hope you feel like there's nobody left And like I was saying the rejection when you start to reject yourself.

[00:22:44] Justin: Yeah You can find something to be thankful in. You can start to think of all the things in your life that you're thankful for. You can start to understand that even though I feel like I'm hopeless, well, I'm living a life of honesty, and I'm living a life full of truth, and I'm [00:23:00] living a life for the one who told me I will have more abundant life.

[00:23:04] Justin: That's right. And once you have that, No level of deception can take that from you. 

[00:23:09] Don: Yep. That is right Those are such words of hope there justin, you know, because , i'm hoping that we're smarter than that You know, I know, uh a lot of times people would like to keep us in an ignorant way But I hope we're smarter than that, but I know , just a little side note here I teach young people once in a while and I remember teaching a class on honesty And telling how important it is to tell the truth because once you tell one lie Once you tell one lie and somebody hears that and believes a lie and finds out that you have told a lie, they will never trust you again.

[00:23:44] Don: It'll take a long time to recover from one lie. And that's why, you know, you have to be making sure that not only are you living an honest life, but the things you say to people, the stuff you say, once you tell a lie, you know, you're not truthful anymore and you don't feel [00:24:00]comfortable with yourself.

[00:24:01] Don: Because , you're a liar. And I always tell them, how many lies does it take to become a liar? Is it one lie? Or is it twenty lies? Or is it a hundred lies? You know, I always tell them, maybe it's just one lie. One lie, and you are a liar. And, uh, you know, and you could live your whole life on that. a liar.

[00:24:18] Don: And I know, you know, I was telling them that basically, you know, like, like the hell on earth, you create your own hell, you create your own misery, you know, own pain. That's where truth. Jesus wants to give us a breakout moment in our life where we can be free of all this, where not only do we start being honest with ourselves, not only do we speak Speak the truth, but we start believing the truth and we start casting lies out of us all of a sudden We got a sense we can sense what's true and what is not true.

[00:24:49] Don: Yeah, that is a peaceful life We're led 

[00:24:50] Justin: by all truth. That is right. That's a good life. And that's when you can start to see the you know, the the certain things that are the [00:25:00] distractions that are constantly going up to just, you know, to keep you away from the truth, to pull you away from the truth.

[00:25:05] Justin: Yeah. And there's these things that, , like I was saying before, there's these certain things that happen in our life that constantly put us through the same spells. Yes. And they, they put us through the same patterns. Yeah. And we have become a very predictable to the one that wants to see us fail. Not the one that wants to see us prosper.

[00:25:28] Justin: Not the God that wants abundant life for us, wants to see us prosper, wants to see us flourish. The one that wants to see us fail. We're predictable. We're very predictable. And we're going to, as long as we Stay predictable. We'll fall to the same schemes. . You know, we'll, we'll fall into the same pits that are always there for us.

[00:25:50] Justin: The same traps. We call them traps. That's 

[00:25:53] Don: true. I got one thing I want to mention here, Justin. Kind of good. This here really gets me, hits my, my funny bone [00:26:00] sometimes. Yeah. Is I go on, I go on Facebook or Instagram, and, well I've been around some of this stuff, where you see people that are, are fighting and arguing, families or whatever it might be, and all of a sudden somebody pulls out a camera and says, we want to take a picture, and they're all wrapping their arms around each other, they all got smiles on their faces, and they snap this picture.

[00:26:18] Don: Beautiful picture. And then he put it on Facebook. And then he got all these people believing that they got a loving and happy family. Well, that's a lie. It's a lie. You know, and that's where I look at a lot of people, you know, that are having miserable lives. You know, things are not going at all well for them, but yet when they get themselves in a certain situation.

[00:26:36] Don: on a big smile and make it look, look at what I got for dinner or whatever it might be. And I say to myself, man, there's a lot of stuff out there that really isn't true. You know, it gets covered up, but yet everybody thinks, you know, my life isn't, isn't what it needs to be. Look at how happy they are. Well, they're not really happy.

[00:26:53] Don: A lot of this is just a coverup, it's just a coverup made to look good. So everybody says, you know, I know I, I ran across a lady this [00:27:00] weekend and I said, you know, I can see by your Facebook that you've got a really good family. You're doing a good job. See I don't know. I don't know. I mean every time she puts a picture on Facebook, the kids got smiles on their faces and they're all dressed up nicely.

[00:27:14] Don: You know, I mean that household could be a terrible household, but it's amazing how we live in a society that promotes everything as being perfect when a lot of people are just flat out living a lie because it isn't really 

[00:27:26] Justin: that way. Yeah, that's true.. We definitely have that. It glamorizes things and it makes, yeah.

[00:27:32] Justin: So you believing in that person and seeing this picture and there's a deception there that now you're also believing in a lie because like you were saying, like it makes it look like this person lives their life a certain way and they really don't. And so there's a lot of deception there. Yeah. The most important thing though, is through living through that deception is to be honest.

[00:27:53] Justin: With other people but to also be honest with yourselves Yeah, and I think this is just a perspective that not a [00:28:00] lot of people really would, , understand. This is a perspective that a lot of people wouldn't normally notice in their life that they're lying to themselves. Because it's easy to see when you're lying to other people.

[00:28:13] Justin: Sometimes it's not easy, but sometimes it's hard to see when you're lying to yourself. 

[00:28:18] both: Because 

[00:28:19] Justin: A lot of the times, it's been happening for a long time. Oh, yeah. The moment you start to realize that, is the moment you start to realize that it hasn't just been happening recently, it's been going on for a long time.

[00:28:30] Justin: Oh, yeah. And it's been, a lot of the times, it's part of your personality trait. It's part of yourself. . It's an identity that you might have. You know that you might have acquired a long time ago was believing in certain lies that you've been telling yourself It's the moment that you flip It's the moment that you turn and you flip that belief system that you can start to understand and acknowledge Those ways of lying to yourself you can start to acknowledge that deception that was there that everything can [00:29:00] turn in your life 

[00:29:01] both: Just 

[00:29:01] Justin: by understanding that what you were believing in and what you were telling yourself or lies You Oh, 

[00:29:07] Don: yeah, because a lot of times what happens here justin is this becomes a very familiar part of you You know, you start living a life and this is what you're familiar with This is what i've been living for the last 10 15 20 years, you know living a lot or pretending to be something that i'm not You know and uh, and then and it's hard it's hard and to know the truth and realize that You've been living a lie, and that's tough to know, but it's tough to break away from all that.

[00:29:34] Don: And that's where it comes to having a relationship. That's where Jesus says, you know, , I want to help you with this. You know, I'm going to help you with this. I'm going to show you the truth. And that's where I know myself, I need to get a relationship. Come to the source. I need to get into the word.

[00:29:48] Don: I need to hear stuff like we're talking about here today, and I need to hear, get things fed into me that can show me 

[00:29:55] Don: truth and help clear up my eyes. Now gradually, I'll start to see things the way they [00:30:00] really are. Gradually, I'll be able to look in the mirror and see who I really am. You know, and, and appreciate that and be able to thank God for the opportunity I've been given right now to be who I am, you know, and I don't have to live a lie anymore.

[00:30:14] Don: I can be who I am. I call myself Don. People, a lot of people call me a lot of things, but I call myself Don, but I can be Don. I don't have to be anybody else. I don't have to pretend to be anybody else. I am who I am. Shameless. Yes, shameless. And trying to be the best version of me, of what God created. And that's where each and every one of us can be that.

[00:30:35] Don: We can look in the mirror, we can call out our name, I am going to be the person I am seeing in the mirror. I'm not going to believe lies anymore, and I'm not going to try to be somebody I am not. I am going to be happy with what I have been created to be. I'm going to live the life How many every, how many years we have here, I'm going to live that, but I'm going to have peace in my heart because it's going to be an honest life.

[00:30:58] Don: It's going to be an honest day's work. It's [00:31:00] going to be my honest relationship with other people. I'm going to be honest with myself and I'm going to be honest with my God that had created me. And I know I've got some weaknesses, but he's going to help me with this because that's what he promised to do.

[00:31:12] Don: But I have to acknowledge him and realize that I am not going to live a lie. a life full of lies and deceit and cover up. It's going to be exposed. I'm going to be free of this. 

[00:31:24] Justin: Yeah, I 

[00:31:24] Don: choose to live 

[00:31:25] Justin: higher now. 

[00:31:26] Don: That's 

[00:31:26] Justin: right. Well, I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, Justin. I think so too.

[00:31:34] Justin: Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today, and we hope you can join us again next week for another good word. Until then, stay blessed by the best. See you [00:32:00] guys.