What is truth?

 

These days I dislike several television items: the news, and various pundits who discuss what they think will happen. The dictionary describes them as: “an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public.” Expert or not, they are still offering an opinion. No one knows the future.

Google says that, “When their personal opinion outweighs considered judgment, people who give opinions, whether on current events, public affairs, sports, media or art are often referred to as "pundits" instead of critics. Critics are themselves subject to competing critics, since the final critical judgment always entails subjectivity.”

While pundits may not call their opinions lies, they cannot claim them to be true. I’ve had a aversion to lies, partly because of the insult I feel when someone lies to me, but even more when I experience the harm that a lie does, whether it is presented as news, or whispered as gossip. If someone lies to me and I catch it, trusting them in the future is almost impossible.

Today’s devotional gives reasons for being more interested in truth. Piper writes that God is truth. This makes lies a total affront to who He is, the triune God. Nothing can nullify His faithfulness and reliability:

What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” (Romans 3:3–4)

This Almighty God became flesh and His Son, who is the image of the Father, is glorified as truth: 

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)
And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. (Matthew 22:16)

Jesus Himself declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). The Apostle John saw Jesus glorified as faithful and true. He said, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war” (Revelation 19:11).

God also lives out the life of the Father and the Son to me in His Spirit, the Spirit of truth. As Jesus said, “When the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me.… When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 15:26; 16:13a).

Before Jesus came into my life, every person that I trusted as friends lied to me . Was God allowing that so I would be eager to know Him, the reliable One who would never lie? Perhaps. I once wrote a long poem on how much truth matters. It is an important part of trust. If God makes a promise, believing it depends on being totally convinced that He speaks truth. He will do whatever He says He will do because He is truth. 

PRAY: I see how important truth is and why You have given me a great sensitivity to lies. One more reason is that the devil is a liar. You told those who refused to trust You, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) My heart craves truth in defiance of this enemy who wants to destroy my faith with his schemes. Thank You for being the truth and being my Savior from sin — and from lies.

Faith relies on facts not feelings

 

The past few weeks I’ve struggled with up/down emotions concerning my responsibilities. Some days they are challenging but doable. Other days I feel totally overwhelmed and want to sleep all day. This is a new experience for me. For years, I have felt confident in taking on most things, but God is working in me to remove self-confidence and rely on Him only. For this, He used a month of trauma.

Today’s devotional expresses it this way: “It is all very well, perhaps, to rejoice in God’s promises or in the revelations He may have granted us or in the experiences we may have realized; but to rejoice in the Promiser himself—Him alone—is the crowning point of Christian life. This is the only place we can know the peace which passes all understanding and where nothing can disturb.”

This is difficult to describe, but as I read the rest of it, the lights came on. That sense of God being enough is wonderful, but if that sense is not there, that indicates that I have been relying on my feelings or view about Him and that is not what “God is enough” means.

The author of the devotional puts it this way: sometimes what satisfies us is not the Lord but our own feelings about the Lord. Usually we are not conscious of this, but our feelings fail, we think it is the Lord who has failed. At that, despair easily follows. Of course, this is foolish, yet it is such a common experience, that very few realize what has happened.

An illustration likens the Christian experience to a train. Fact is the engine pulling it. Faith is the the coal car that fuels the engine, and feelings are the caboose that trails along behind. Although it trails, the caboose is important – it is where the train crew lives.

However, it does not work to put faith or the caboose in the lead. When that happens, the facts are not the main source of living. As long as faith and feelings are solid, all is okay, but once they take a dip (and they often do) facts need to be put in place. This has never been a problem for me until this past while. And like the devotion says, I couldn’t figure out what was going on so prayed that God would show me, and He did. My caboose was taking the lead.

This past few weeks I’ve had three big projects happening, plus being very ill, plus two deaths, plus no ladies prayer time or small group Bible study meetings (leader is on holidays) and I’ve stayed home too much. The family of God needs each other to keep on track, to be fact-checkers for one another. This devotional reminded me of these verses:

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. (Psalm 73:16–17)

My struggle is not the same as the psalm’s author who was concerned about the prosperity of the wicked, but the solution is similar; he sought discernment in the place where the people of God gather to worship. I need Christian fellowship, not coffee and cookies but sharing truth about God. Truth is the facts that pull the train. Too much time alone opens the door to other visitors, like burdens, difficult experiences, emotional issues, etc.

PRAY: Knowing that You have not abandoned me even when I feel as if You have is important Lord. Having other Christians remind me that You are here, or even me being the one who does the reminding for them is the way to keep that fact engine pulling my faith and keeping my feelings square with the facts. Thank You Jesus for being the way and the TRUTH and my life. This is going to be a good day! (Later: and it was!)