How do I stop telling white lies?

Last updated on October 5, 2020

Question:

My question is about lying. Recently, I have accepted Christ as my Savior. I’m facing problems with white lies. I say a white lie almost every time. I’ve been praying about this. For example, while studying, my teacher asks if I understood a topic. Most of the time I get distracted while they’re explaining and I say ‘Yes, I understood’. Sometimes I exaggerate things. And sometimes I’m embarrassed to tell some of my secrets, so I lie and tell something else.

I don’t know what to do. Please help me.

Answer:

Praying to be truthful isn’t useful if you aren’t putting what you know you should be doing into practice. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:21-25). God doesn’t make you truthful, you have to choose to be honest.