Truth transforms my life

My sister became a Christian in a far-away country where Christianity was and still is illegal. She came home to discover that I also had become a Christian. She told me to have daily devotions using the method taught to her by a missionary (who was also not legally allowed in that country).

Her instruction was simple: Read John five times and Romans twice, then the NT and the OT. Read until God speaks to me then write the date, Bible reference, and what I understood from the reading. This served well for many years.

After a time, I realized that every line in the Bible was truth from God, even the parts that describe human sin. It was written in the Bible because God wanted it to be there and wanted me to know it. While many people pick and choose the parts they want to believe, or only believe the parts they understand, I can see this book is not a manual for theologians or even casual reading. It is truth revealed that I might know God.

Understanding this may have come easy for some, but my mind is wired to solve puzzles, enjoy mysteries, seek answers, and find reasons for everything. I’m a ‘hard sell’ in that if someone tries to convince me that I should have a product or do something, I will resist it. I want to discover for myself whether the sales claims are true and the more I am pushed, the more I resist. I’m the opposite of gullible, but at the same time, once convinced, stick solidly to what I believe.

Sadly, if convinced a lie is true, that causes me great conflict and pain — showing me the reality of why I need Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Without God’s saving power, who knows where I would be and without the Book of books, who knows what I would believe.

This is the power of God’s Word. Because it is not a book of theories but of actual facts, it feeds my mind with the right stuff. As today’s devotional says, things are not true because they are in the Bible; they are only in the Bible because they are true. When it tells me that God loves me, this is a fact. Otherwise, it would not be in the Bible. Solomon wrote:

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. (Proverbs 30:5)

Jesus and the NT point out that knowing the truth must be followed up by obedience to it. If told the truth that eating junk food would affect my health and I simply kept eating it, could I expect otherwise? It is the same with truth from God:

But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21)

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:28)

The Word of God changes lives — as long as it is believed and obeyed:

You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. (1 Peter 1:23)

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32)

PRAY: Jesus, it is one thing to read listening for a special word from You, and delightful that for the past fifty plus years You speak to me every day. I’m amazed at You. This truth is in place only because ALL of the Bible is You speaking. I cannot control or even be certain I will hear those special words — only be glad in Your faithfulness, but I can believe whatever has been written and know that as I read it and do what it says, You transform my life.