To Encourage You

John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” 

So, where do you go to keep yourself informed these days?  Who are you listening to? Do you find it frustrating that if you switch from Fox News to CNN it seems that there are two completely different accounts of reality?  We hear the term “fake news!” all the time. It seems that no matter what we read on social media or hear on the news we have to pause for a day or so to see what the “fact checkers” have to say, or we refer to Snopes.com to see that website’s version of the truth.  Everywhere we look there are accusations followed by denials and hearings on Capitol Hill.  It goes on and on. So, where does one turn for the truth?   Is it even possible to find it?  

Well, there is an answer, and it’s been the same answer as long as man has walked on this earth.  It’s the Word of God.  That is the one and only place that we can go for the absolute, unchanging, eternal truth.  And, oh, it’s so good for the soul.  It tells us the truth about who God is, who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. It tells us the truth about the past, the present, and the future.  It tells us that Jesus is the Truth and that Satan is the Father of Lies.  It tells us that in the face of all the sin and lies that fill this world, we can be saved from it all by putting our faith in the One Who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18).  It’s as we follow the One Who is “full of grace and truth (John 1:14),” as we abide in Him, and as we cling to Him, that we can find ourselves living in the truth, making decisions based on truth, having the discernment to separate error from truth, and founding the entirety of our present life as well as our eternity on the truth. It’s that which sets the true believer in Jesus Christ apart from this world. It’s what “sanctifies” them, as the verse above states.  

It’s in this prayer of Jesus that we have insight into the will of God for us.  It’s in this prayer of Jesus for His followers which is in the perfect will of His Father that the believer has confidence that  God will lead us in the Truth as we read, believe, and act in obedience to His Word.  

So, do you want to rid yourself of the lies that pervade this world? Do you want to be blessed with the knowledge of “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”? Then draw very near to the One Who alone has called Himself, “The Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).”  As we lean hard into Him, as we learn from Him, as we listen to Him daily by peering into His Word, we can have the assurance that we will “know the truth and the truth will set (us) free (John 8:32).” 

May God help us to have the wisdom to follow the One Who is Truth and be freed from the lies that fill this world.