Are You Pretending You Are Doing the Right Thing?

Have you ever been doing something that you know is wrong but act like you don’t? You ignore the consequences, the immorality and the estrangement that it has brought between you and God. You pretend that what you are doing is good. Pretending soothes your conscience but down deep you know it isn’t good. You know the difference between right and wrong.

Let’s see if I can describe your actions when you are pretending something is right when it is wrong.

You avoid people (people with godly spiritual character) who will tell you that what you are doing is wrong. I have seen so many people drop out of church when they began doing something wrong. The girl moves in with her boyfriend and stops going to church. The guy starts drinking heavily with a group of others and drops out of church. A woman is having an affair and drops out of church. A man leaves his wife and family (either figuratively or physically) and drops out of church. Each of these people knows it is wrong and leaves church because he or she is afraid someone will point it out. Reality will not do when you are pretending.

The Bible is never read with any passion. The Bible which was once your guiding light is left in the drawer of your night stand. What used to be something which brought you closer to God is never even thought of. You haven’t really read your Bible in so long that you don’t even know where it is. The Bible will be convicting. You can’t pretend any longer when you are under conviction.

You tell yourself something is true that you know isn’t. You say that “a piece of paper” (marriage license) doesn’t matter when it comes to your happiness. You say, “Even Jesus must have gotten drunk sometime at a wedding.” You tell yourself that your marriage was over anyway. It didn’t matter that you are having an affair with someone else. Pretending depends upon telling yourself lies.

You tell yourself that what you are doing is good when you know it is bad.. For example, you say that he would marry you at any moment. You are glad that he is with you because he wants to and not just because he married you. You say that you are really happier in the affair. You say that you really need this fling to unwind and get your life together. Truth is-- its tearing your life apart. It has alienated you from the people who care about you most. Making the bad appear good is necessary to continue the pretense.

The problem is as old as Adam and Eve. They pretended they were doing something to improve their lives when they knew it was wrong. Of course, you know how that worked out.

Genesis 3:2-11 (NIV)
² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" ⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" ¹⁰ He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." ¹¹ And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"