I was deceived

[The devil] is a liar and the father of it. – JOHN 8:44

It was dusk. My wife and I had just strolled across the famous Charles Bridge in Prague when a man approached us with a wad of money in his hand. "Forty-two Czech korunas for one dollar," he said. The official rate was about 35Ks for one US dollar. So I exchanged 50 dollars for 2,100 Czech korunas.

That evening I told my son about my good fortune. "Dad, I should have told you," he apologized. "Never exchange money on the street." We looked at the bills. The 100K note was a good Czech money but were Bulgarian notes no longer in circulation. I had been deceived – and robbed!

Satan employs similar tactics (JOHN 8:44). He capitalizes on the deceitfulness of sin, using its "passing pleasures" (HEBREWS 11:25) to hide the pain that always follows. Sin may be attractive, even offering something that in and of itself is good – but behind it is deception.

Our best defense against that deception is to have a growing knowledge of God’s Word. As we follow the psalmist’s example, we’ll keep from being deceived by sin: "Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You" (PSALM 119:11). – DENNIS J. DE HAAN

Give me, O Lord, a strong desire

To look within Your Word each day;

Help me to hide it in my heart,

Lest from its truth my feet would stray – BRANON

READ: JOHN 8:34-47

God’s truth uncovers Satan’s lies.