In day two of our series on honesty, today we're going to look at the temptation to build a facade and invite God to tear it down as we seek to live more honestly.

May God show you how loved you are, just as you are.

And may His love bring you freedom and life as we rest in His presence right now.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs,

which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleannliness.

Matthew 2327.

The greatest testimony you could possibly give is to have the audacity to live honestly.

It takes courage to be yourself.

It takes security in the unconditional love of your heavenly father to acknowledge not just your strengths and success, but also your

weaknesses and failures. But in doing so, life will proclaim the powerful, beautiful work

of God. And in doing so, you will experience the peace and joy only freedom from building

a facade can produce. A facade is an

outward appearance that is maintained to conceal a less pleasant or credible reality. So often,

to cover up what we know to be imperfect, we devote ourselves to creating a false picture for others.

We even devote so much energy to building a facade that we try and deceive ourselves.

We muster up our pride and look only at what we've done well, all the while ignoring

what we need help with. As a result, we spend all our time living a life

apart from reality. And to live apart from reality is to live apart from the grace and love

of our ever-present, holy, real father. In Matthew 2327, Jesus passionately rebukes those who try to build facades.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness.

God solely cares about the heart.

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