“Know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 NIV
“The truth as I see it, is the truth as God said it!”
My thoughts today are about, “the truth as I see it.”
You will meet a lot of people who are not free, and that is so unnecessary. They are not free to think differently than they always have. They are not free to choose more wisely than before. They are not free to change from what they’ve been. Many times that is because they do not know the truth or have chosen to ignore the truth.
Just because the truth is unpleasant or not as you wished does not mean that you can simply ignore it as though it doesn’t exist. Truth reigns, and only those who embrace it can be freed by it. “Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth, but to stand for the truth at all times.” 2 Corinthians 13:8 NLT.
Not liking the truth will not release you from its demands or requirements. Not believing the truth will not change what the truth is. The “truth as you see it” is not good enough. You can be absolutely sure about something and still be absolutely wrong. Truth is not relative to anything else. Truth is absolute and rests upon the authority and sovereignty of God and His Word. Truth is what God has established it to be. Jesus stated it this way, “Sanctify them by the truth. Your Word is truth.” John 17:17 NIV.
Recently, I was in a conversation with a person who clearly disagreed with a decision that had been made at the school. After fruitless attempts to assure them the decision they refused to accept was the right decision made by very experienced and responsible people after a lengthy and thorough process, they again said they simply wanted to know the truth.
After 30 minutes of discussion, it was clear that they only wanted truth as they believed it to be – or information that would convince them to believe what they were unwilling to accept. They weren’t looking for truth; they needed someone else to be wrong so they could be right. You cannot determine truth; you can only discover it.
They were looking for “truth” consistent with what they had decided in their own mind weeks before that the truth would be. They didn’t find what they were looking for; that person didn’t walk away free – they were only willing to accept truth as they believed it should be. I felt like shouting a line of Jack Nicholson’s from a movie, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”
The truth, as I see it, is the truth as God said it! There are two forces in your world: “God who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2 NIV), and a devil who cannot tell the truth. “The devil . . always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 NLT. The choice is yours; who will you choose to believe? Jesus did not apologize nor blush when He claimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, except through Me.” John 14:7.
My prayer for you today is to always see truth as it is, not as you wish it were.