Love for the Truth
Awhile ago during my quiet time, I felt the Spirit give me a new exciting direction in my calling. With my passion ignited, I went off to enjoy the day, but soon the dampening cloud of discouragement moved in. I started to think; What’s the point? Would anyone really care? Who am I to do this? Perhaps I’m wasting my time. Is it really God’s will? As those thoughts started to invade my mind, discouragement and frustration started to set in. Immediately, I recognized that “discouragement” as the enemy’s attack. I began to pray. After you’ve been hit enough with it, you start to recognize it – usually. I prayed and it wasn’t too long before those thoughts were fleeting. Though I was still seeking clarity and confirmation regarding God’s will – there was no more discouragement.
One of the enemy’s biggest suppressors to us moving forward in God’s will is discouragement. It is a very effective strategy because many of us have a layer of self-doubt, and often what God calls us to do is beyond ourselves so it’s easy for that self-doubt to set in.
Believing lies are the death of us in many ways. Today I read in Jeremiah 28-29. Several times it said believing lies is rebellion against God. Jeremiah 28:16, 29:32. Never really thought about it like that before, but it reinforced how diligent we need to be in purging the lies in our lives by having a LOVE for the TRUTH.
2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
God’s love for us is tremendous. In His perfect love, He has given us all we need to dispel all unrighteous deception – His Word. The Truth is extremely powerful and when it abides in us, because we abide in it, then we can overcome all. But it’s up to us to abide in that pure Word in faith letting it penetrate and become active in our daily lives.
Do you read and meditate on the ENTIRE Word of God? (All of it’s applicable to us today.)
Do you read God’s pure Word with a passion for truth or some other reason?
Are you reliant on others’ writings?
When you have a love for the truth you question your beliefs. You ask why you do what you do because you desire to be living in the Truth. And it isn’t questioning necessarily what you say you believe, but what your life SHOWS you believe.
For a lack of LOVE for the TRUTH, many are in bondage, afflicted, and troubled. John 8:32 Lies are at the root of most bondage. There are many types of bondage and only by dwelling in the Truth will the lies be exposed for what they are. Otherwise we will continue to believe them to be accurate. The only way out of deception is for us to come face to face what is real; Truth that comes from God’s Word – not man’s interpretation of it. THE Truth is to be the foundation of our beliefs, because it affects everything else.
Often we do what we do without deeply considering why or where we learned those thoughts and behaviors. Not questioning allows the lies to remain, thus the bondage. Further, we are often blinded to what is happening in our own lives, because we’ve lived with our way of thinking, be it right or wrong, for so long. We don’t question it or stop questioning it. We let unexamined thoughts and beliefs drive our decisions and behaviors.
As 2 Thessalonians 2:10 states, in theses days, the most important thing we can do is have a LOVE for the TRUTH – otherwise we will fall prey to the unrighteous deception that will be posing as the truth of God. Because of the times we are in, I strongly feel we must fully know that we are listening to God’s voice and not someone else’s. Therefore, we need to seriously start questioning what we are thinking and why we do what we do in light of God’s truth and let God guide us to the paths of righteousness.
August 8, 2011 at 9:13 pm
This really spoke to me, especially with the struggles I am currently dealing with. Thank you Rachel! Keep up the excellent, inspirational work!
Chrissy Russell
August 9, 2011 at 12:09 am
Hi Chrissy – thanks for your comment. 🙂 It’s life changing to have a love for the truth.
August 8, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Love for the Truth is an uplifting commentary. Truth and freedom form a bond: if you lose one the other will follow.
August 9, 2011 at 12:09 am
Hi Jerry – much agreed, how truth and freedom go hand in hand. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
August 9, 2011 at 3:12 am
Don’t you EVER quit, Girl! Speak the TRUTH…especially now while you are young and have the strength of youth…HOLD UP GOD’S BANNER…because you are anointed for it! Dark days are ahead and we need the LIGHT more than ever. I need to post more than I do. Have recently begun teaching 2 classes at Auburn University (of English) and have not done as much personal writing myself, but it NEEDS to be “put out there” for God to scatter to the 4 Winds! Keep writing! Keep proclaiming! Keep decreeing! It IS making a difference!
August 9, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Hi Sandy – haha … to see the difference that truly deeply and honestly seeking God and being in His truth has made in my life compells me, and it’s by God’s grace I write. – God desires to give and do so much in us, if we will seek Him in truth and spirit.
I agree, the days are even now growing darker and darker – blindness is taking a deep hold in the lives of many – It’s a time to pray for others like never before. Thank you for your encouraging words Sandy – they are always much appreciated. 🙂
August 9, 2011 at 7:23 am
Thank you for more encouragement to love the Truth!
“August 8 – Read the Bible DAILY the REST of your life. No engagement is richer, deeper, and more powerful. The Word is Truth.” – Rachel quote!
God bless you and your love of His truth!
August 9, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Hi Debbie – thanks for your words … I’ll be sending out the other calendar to you today. 🙂
August 9, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Excellent post, and shares something each of us experiences. Just this morning my husband and I prayed that God would reveal to us the cause of the pressure we are experiencing. We know that all discontent, all oppression, all doubt, and all despair are of our own making. Jesus Christ promised peace, joy, a light burden, and an easy yoke. It is our disobedience or lack of application that adds straw after straw to our burden until we are ready to break.
Thank you,
Lynn
August 9, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Hi Lynn – so agree. We are our own worst enemy most of the time. Our minds are a powerful device… so important to be abiding and meditating on God’s Truth … there are plenty of lies that bombard us all day long – we need the truth to combat them faithfully. Thanks for your comment Lynn. I love to hear what others are thinking.
August 9, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Rachel this is so true. May we never stop questioning why we do the things we do. May our questioning cause us to continually bring our thoughts,words, and deeds into the reflective light of God’s Word! Thanks for the encouragement.
August 10, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Hi Jelillie – I find it interesting that as you abide in the Word, the Holy Spirit brings up those thoughts, deeds, etc that need refinement or removal. We often don’t see ourselves honestly until He shows us. In His light, we see the truth in us.
August 11, 2011 at 2:30 am
“After you’ve been hit enough with it, you start to recognize it”
Interrogation. That’s what it’s like isn’t it? In our own minds that should be at peace, with no one else involved, we entertain the interrogation.
I am a firm believer, like you, that the best defense is the truth. It has helped me to recognize more readily, the lies and subtle twists of the truth that the enemy uses to stifle me.
I could be wrong, but there is a part of me that believes he tries the hardest to stop the one’s that God has the biggest plans for. The same part of me feels that God let’s him work us over because He knows that if we’re ever to be useful to Him, for what He has planned, we must first learn that our enemy has nothing. Even Jesus had to go through him. 40 days at the very beginning of His ministry. He put him in his place there and had little trouble with him after.
Noticed one of your commenters was at Auburn. We are big Auburn fans. Originally from Alabama; family is still there.
I guess enough for now.
August 11, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Hi Mike – how true, the Truth is our greatest weapon … I agree God does allow us to wrestle because it strengthens us — it’s when you really have to stand on what you believe that you realize what you truly believe. In those times our faith and trust in God are put to the test … and if we cling to the truth it is strengthened, because the truth is always victorious in the end.
August 11, 2011 at 6:30 pm
“it’s when you really have to stand on what you believe that you realize what you truly believe.”
Exactly.
August 11, 2011 at 10:37 am
thank you for your post….I am still unravelling the teachings that the JWs have taught me…
August 11, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Hi, It’s amazing how false doctrines can have such a hold on us … once you realize this you better understand the importance of the warnings throughout the Bible about seeking truth from God and being aware of false teachers.
August 12, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Great post, Rachel. This really confirms many of the things God’s been doing in my life for the last several years. I’ve had to let go of so many falsehoods in order to see who He really is; things I’ve “always” believed, but have come to realize aren’t substantiated in scripture at all.
When you find out where some of these things actually came from, you can only shake your head and thank God for opening your eyes. He is so much more glorious than we can possibly imagine, but all of these “filters” of false beliefs distort even that picture of Him that we, in our human frailty, are capable of seeing.
August 12, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Hi Cindy – so well said … it’s amazing the extent and depth of lies and deception about God … makes sense in light of that, why He desires us to diligenlty seek Him to know Him and His truth.
August 19, 2011 at 8:59 pm
I read this post previously and sorry I am late to comment.
I pray that you never lose faith in the outreach work you are doing Rachel. Through the Spirit, you have touched many lives (mine included), and challenged us to question how and why we worship and pray so that we can grow closer to God through Jesus.
I look forward to what great things the future holds for your work.
August 23, 2011 at 10:38 am
Hi Slamdunk – Thank you so much for your encouragement … it means a lot to me. Though just the vessel .. its encouraging :-).
November 12, 2011 at 12:45 pm
“a new thing I give, a woman saves a man.” -Men are scoffers over God’s truth, more so, the deeper a man is into denominational religon. -“Many will knock but few will enter.” -“You have a judge and the judge is the words I have spoken” -Near 90% of all Jesus spoke came from the old testament. However, Jesus said, “man shall live by every word out of the mouth of God”. -Love for God’s truth is the only way Jesus will send the Holly Spirit to the heart & mind of a person, that, they may be taught (by GOD) all things. -God said, “Let there be light—Jesus began to shine” all other light was created on the fourth day!
November 14, 2011 at 10:36 am
Hi Anonymous, how true …we truly only live by God’s words .. because it is truth adn only truth is life and endures.