Are You Lying To Me? Or Just To Yourself?

I am shocked to see how often people speak untruthfully. More shocking still is the sublime sincerity they exude while pouring patent and potent falsehoods from their lips. I am frequently forced to conclude that the sincerity is not a show. They believe their own words. They are the first victims of their own deceitfulness.

And yet I should not be shocked. I sometimes catch myself lying to myself. That is a sure indication that there have been other occasions when I lied to myself... and didn't catch myself in the act.

How often, O Lord, have I lied to you... and believed my own words? How badly I would like to say that never happens.

But I'd be lying to myself if I said that.

Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.