Daily Devotional For Sunday, November 8, 2026
Good morning Southside! I am following the One Year Chronological Bible reading suggestion and any Bible verses you see highlighted in bold (ex. John 3:16), means it is a link to that verse. All you have to do is click on the reference and it will take you to the verse online. Our daily devotional for today comes from Acts 5:1-11. If you have been in church for any length of time, you are familiar with the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
At first they seem like two wonderful godly Christians who had made a promise to God what they planned to do with the money from the sale of some property. Ananias in Aramaci means “God is gracious” and Sapphira in Aramaic means “beautiful.” It is clear from the Book of Acts that this couple had seen the generosity of Barnabas and on the surface, wanted to appear to be as generous as Barnabas. Acts 5 records nothing gracious or beautiful about this couple. Their ruse was the promise to sell some property and give all the money to the church.
You can almost picture Ananias during the worship invitation walking down during “I Surrender All” and placing the proceeds from the sale of this land on the altar. Instead, what both agreed ahead, what both through premeditation decided to do was keep some of the money and appear to be giving all of it. This was spiritual deception and spiritual fraud.
Pastor and author Dr. Barnhouse on the basis of this text would never let his congregation sing the 3rd stanza at “At Calvary.” – “You see,” he said, “if God acted in the same way today that he did in the fifth chapter of Acts, you’d have to have a morgue in the basement of every church and a mortician on the pastoral staff.” The truth is, we would not have a pastoral staff either!” (Source: Donald Grey Barnhous, Acts, p. 52).
So, what sin did Ananias and Sapphira commit that caused the Lord to take their lives? First, it was not some kind of casual deception. Both of them presented a deeper spiritual commitment than they actually had. We do not share in their sin when others think we are more spiritual than we are, but when we try to make others think we are more spiritual than we are. Some examples are talking about how one fasts or has a daily quiet time or prays for lengthy periods when you are still judging others, gossiping and holding a grudge. It is when you talk about more what you do for your church rather than where the Lord is sizing you down.
All Ananias and Sapphira had to say was, “Well we wish we could be like Barnabas who gave all. We wanted to do that but we have decided to keep some back for emergencies.” That is transparency and truthfulness. Had they done that, God would have used what they gave and blessed them for it. So, why was God so severe? Why did Peter not give them time to confess their sin and repent from it? First, this was a pivotal time in the church. Had God allowed this, it would set a horrible precedent that may have killed the church. Remember Achan from the old Testament (Joshua 7)?
The truth is we are deceivers by nature. Our American culture is plagued with the diseases of untruths, lies, deceptions, falsehoods. We have a tendency even when telling a story to exaggerate it or as one of my best friends calls it, “We add local color to it.” In fact, every time he tells the same story, it is a little bit different. In the 1997 movie Liar, Liar, starring Jim Carey, his son, Max gets so frustrated with his father’s incessant lying that he gets God to grant him a wish, that his father, Fletcher, could not tell a lie. If God snapped His finger and you could only tell the pure, unadulterated truth about everything, would people relate to you differently? Why or why not?
A couple of suggestions here: (1) Do an honest evaluation of your life regarding your own deceit. Do you always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth OR do you exaggerate it or distort it? (2) Second, go before the Lord and confess it all. Repent and fall on His grace. Ask the Lord to help you remove the habits you have developed that cause you to be deceptive. (3) Third, make a covenant with the Lord through the help of an accountability partner to refrain from all forms of lying. And if you fail, confess it and repent from it immediately.
Reflection Assignment: When are you most vulnerable to deceive, to exaggerate, or to lie? Are you willing to do the 3 suggestions above? Why or why not? If you are, when will you begin?
Scripture To Meditate On: Ephesians 4:25, “So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to be a person of truth in all things. I do not want to emulate the devil, the father of lies. Please bring someone into my life to help me with this. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly