What is the truth? Reality or perception?
Even when we say we want the truth, we usually don’t. We want truth to slant our way, so we stretch it, hide it, and misrepresent it, and re-shape it to fit our desires and logic.
But truth is either your friend or enemy. She doesn't play neutral.
A verse in Psalms offered me one of those cataclysmic dividing lines where I must choose which side of Truth I intended to live on.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts. Psalm 51:6
Or as The Living Bible says it:
You deserve honesty from the heart.
I knew this line came from David’s confession about the devious way he treated the truth. I wanted to believe that I would never have done what he did.
But I was wrong.
Have I ever hidden the truth about something I wanted or something I did? Have I ever slanted the truth as a weapon to protect myself from some unmasking? Have I always been honest with God about what was in my heart? That’s when this verse became a magnifying glass that enlarged every willful way in my heart.
Of course, God wants truth from me. What can He do with lies and sugar-coated deception?
Heart honesty is hard. We tend to hide from our own inside truths because the last thing we want is to look bad.
But if I believe that God is All Truth, how could I ever believe that nothing but the truth would bring all of God to me? I must give truth from the depths of my insecurity, from the unrelenting pain of some betrayal, from the unsurrendered edge of self-will. I must be willing to find and own the Truth about me.
It was a simple but profound moment of turning to God’s mirror and letting the false mirror I had been using fall to the ground in a thousand pieces. I resolved that I wanted God’s Truth more than anything I had ever misrepresented as truth.
Then, I made a promise to God, that to the best of my Spirit-led awareness, I would seek His Truth about my motives, fears, or some willful push that did not represent God. I would look for Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. I would not settle for what made me look good or feel better.
I wish I could tell you this process is a quick reflex, but it is not. Self-examination is a crowded closet that too many people keep closed and sometimes locked. They fear exposure and prefer the lies that keep the closet closed.
But self-examination in God’s mirror of Truth is not a shameful experience. God wants us to own “truth in the inward parts” so He can address what is hurting or misshaping us. He would lovingly show us that we don’t need the lies we have been telling ourselves. He wants to untangle us on the inside, clean us out in ways that receive more and more of His unfailing love that heals and re-news us into the people He knows we can be.
So how do you live this way?
Be honest with God and yourself. Be honest about hurt, confusion, fear, insecurity. Be brutally honest.
Ask for help from God’s Spirit of Truth. God’s Spirit ALWAYS points to Truth.
Agree with God about anything He points out. Truth always sets a new direction away from excuses and rationalization.
Live the rest of the day knowing God holds what you have shared so that you can know the freedom of living without hiding it.
Then, let God help you set a new direction, living without the need of anything but God’s Truth.
I leave you with this blessing . . .
