Walking in Truth
Walking in Truth
Jesus said, ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32).
But in the process, the truth can make you miserable!
Truth can be very uncomfortable. We have pivotal moments when we’re asked to step up and say it or act on it. In those moments character is forged and relationships solidified.
Paul says, “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body”
We’ve been socially conditioned to be pleasing and avoid making waves, so some of what we have to learn about truth is actually a process of learning. However painful, friendship deepens in the fertile ground of honesty.
Unless you make truthfulness a priority, there’s an actual ‘law at work’ which dictates that even when you ‘want to do good, evil is right there’. That means our natural ‘default’ setting (the one automatically selected by our internal computer unless we deliberately choose another option) is always set toward a lower standard.
One author writes: ‘I lived in Atlanta… there’s a vine there called kudzu and once it creeps onto your tree or fence, if you don’t kill it immediately, it’ll overtake your entire property.
Any deception – subtle omission, telling a tiny white lie – is like planting a kudzu seed in the garden of your heart.
For me it’s a slippery slope, like taking a side route on an unmarked path, thinking I’ve found a shortcut. I get sloppy and lazy then I get lost.
I let one infraction of integrity slide without correction. I feel the tug of the Holy Spirit, but I shrug it off and stay busy .and I’ve taken the first step into shadow-living.
Tiny lies are like snowballs rolling downhill… they’re sticky, and they get bigger fast!
How do we stay in truth when the potential resides in us to compromise?
First: we must recommit to our walk with God every morning before we do anything else. We do that through prayer and reading the Scriptures. By doing this we’re choosing light over darkness while it’s still too early to mess up.
Second: we must align ourselves with the promptings of the Spirit.
This is a highly personal thing which grows in direct proportion to our time and devotion to our walk with God.’
It’s one thing to desire truth, but to pursue it you must ‘Put off your old self and put on the new self, created to be like God’ (vv. 22-24)
We must be willing to have the conversations our “old self” would have avoided.
It’s not easy – it requires heavy doses of humility, and accepting that we’re going to be uncomfortable.
The quickest remedy is immediate and no matter how uncomfortable it is… the truth sets us free.
Pursuit of truth is like a salmon’s upstream journey; we’re literally going against the current.
The world says truth can change based on circumstances, comparisons, new data and levels of experience. But ultimate truth isn’t relative.
Truth can’t be rationalised or customised to fit our moods and preferences.
That’s why the status of our heart is so important – when we’re unable or unwilling to think our way into the truth, we must rely on the cultivation of our heart.
Soul food:
Source: Author Unknown – Love to give you credit!
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