Last Sunday, the message was about truth. The main points were that God cannot lie because He is truth, that Satan is a liar and there is no truth in him, that truth brings freedom, and that there is always a truth to contradict the lie.
Ya wanna know the thing that hit me the most?
It was this statement: “What I believe does not change the reality of the truth.”
What I believe–what I see as true, what I think is right–does not change the reality of the truth.
We can believe lies. We can think that they are true, can wholeheartedly buy into them.
But that doesn’t change the truth.
You might believe that you are ugly, worthless, unwanted, unloved–but that doesn’t change the truth that God created you “fearfully and wonderfully” (Psalm 139:14), that He cares about the sparrows and you are worth more than they (Matthew 10:29-31), that He sent His Son to die for you while you were still a sinner (Romans 5:8).
You might believe that you can never be forgiven for what you’ve done, that you’re too far gone–but that doesn’t change the truth that if you confess your sins God will forgive them (1 John 1:9).
You might believe that you can’t have victory over a certain sin, that you must always give in to it–but that doesn’t change the truth that God provides a way to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13) , and that He is greater than Satan (1 John 4:4).
And that’s just the start of the list! The Bible is crammed full of truths–truths to expose and replace the lies, truths to encourage or warn you, truth after truth after truth.
What you believe does not change the truth.
Some time ago, I noticed that in the word victory, t is in the middle. T for truth and for the shape of the cross.
Truth sets us free. It reminds us who we are and Whose we are; it reminds us Who God is and what He does. It tells us that we don’t have to live in bondage and darkness because Jesus made a way out.
And He made a way out through the cross. The cross represents forgiveness, love, freedom. And it represents victory–victory over sin, victory over Satan and all his demons and followers, victory over the emptiness and hopelessness and fear, victory over death itself.
It’s because of the truth and the cross–perhaps the truth of the cross–that we can have victory.
That’s the honest, genuine, real-as-can-be truth. 🙂
