I’ve heard it said that our talk talks and our walk talks but our walk talks a whole lot louder than our talk talks. In other words, we’re known not just by what we say but by what we do. “Even a child makes himself known by his acts” (Proverbs 20:11).

Since we speak, then, with both our lips and our lives, and since it’s true that we lie with our lips, then we should also consider that we can lie with our lives. We may not use untrue words, but we may be constantly communicating untruth in our ways. The easiest and worst lie of our lives—worst because it should be the least neglected—is to live as if we do not need God.

The human race wants to “be like God,” but in a way that we replace Him. That is not only difficult, it’s a miserable lie. It’s miserable because it’s pathetic; does the pot really think it can replace its Potter? And it’s miserable for all who do believe it because of the constant head-banging. Trying to replace God is contrary to the inescapable reality that we were made to reflect Him and depend on Him. The truth is that our identity is tied to Him.

Augustine wrote in The City of God:

That is a lie which we do in order that it may be well with us but which makes us more miserable than we are.

Unless we believe, unless we worship, unless we call on the name of the Lord, we cannot be truly blessed because we will be disconnected from the only one who gives true blessing. May we do truth by coming “to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that our works have been carried out in God” (John 3:21).