Upon reading the title of this blog I know it set off the alarms of vocabulary specialists.  No, “fakeful” is not a word, but I figured since we live in a time where new clichés, slang words, and hash tags surface every day, I could try one for the purpose of bringing this message to life!

If you’ve been following my blogs you have noticed that I am on a campaign to make living a Godly life and Christianity as attractive as humanly possible.  It really is all up to us because God is not walking around on earth for the world to visibly witness.  I am reminded of the saying, “fake it till you make it”.  I am certain that many have serious issues with this statement and I can certainly understand why.  However, I would like to propose another angle for consideration.

I am firmly convinced that the way others view you can make all the difference in their opinion of what you stand for.  For example, if we profess with our mouths that God is good, His mercies endure forever, all things are working out for the good of those who love Him, we praise Him according to His excellent greatness, and so on . . . then would it not stand to reason that the persona we portray should reflect what we say?  I would venture to say the answer is YES!  But how often do we show just the opposite?  Our heads are bowed because we’re having a bad day; our foreheads are frowned because we have a headache; our words are harsh because we’re stressed! 

It really is a fact that we wear our feelings.  The question then surfaces, are we doing God a disservice in the way we represent Him and does this make Him look attractive that we want to win for His Kingdom?  I believe that God would want us to look beyond what is our present (and certainly temporary) circumstance and display the greatness of what He has already done and promised He will do!  You may say that smiling when you’re unhappy is fake.  It may seem deceitful to you to be cordial to someone you do not particularly like.  Sharing or giving out of your abundance to someone who has landed upon hard times as a result of their own poor judgement may go against the grain of your principles.  But is that not what Jesus would do?

The Holy Spirit dwells within us to be our guide, not just to give us direction of where to go and how to do, but also how we should act and react.  It does mean that oftentimes we must do the exact opposite of what our flesh would dictate!  That in and of itself is a TALL ORDER!  But with God it is POSSIBLE!  That now brings us back to our title and my newly contrived word – fakeful.  Could it be possible that it feels fake to us because it is foreign to us or so different to what we’re accustomed to?  I looked up the definition of the word fake and found this:

“To conceal the defects of or make appear more attractive, interesting, valuable.”  Well now, isn’t that essentially what we have to do about life’s distasteful circumstances?  We are not denying the truth, we are just denying the lie of disparagement and sub-standard living!  And we know the origin of the LIE  –  Satan!!  We have no problem leaping for joy when good things come our way, but how quickly those praise reports fade into the distance when the least little problem surfaces. 

This one thing we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, if it were not for God’s faithfulness toward us we would not even exist!  He is full of faith when it comes to His children.  How do we endeavor to live our lives full of faith to show our gratitude for His manifold faithfulness?  First, we must defy the enemy’s tactics to strip us of all that substantiates the very core of who we are – God’s chosen!  Yes, you may need to “fake it till you make it” but what may feel fake to you today, with a sincere heart to make God look most attractive may just become your reality tomorrow!!!

Source: First Lady Denise