Truth

When I was in high school my family made what seemed like an everyday, ordinary trip to our little grocery store. My dad and brother hopped out to run in and get whatever it was that we needed. My mom and I were waiting in the backseat, chatting, when suddenly she screamed, flailed around trying to unbuckle, and dove head first into the front seat. The only intelligible words I could understand were "WE"RE MOVING!!!!" as I stared bewildered at her behind and feet in the air, hand desperately reaching for the brake pedal.

It is truly a sight I will never forget, and every time I do remember it I can't help but chuckle. When the laughter died down I realized that the car beside us had slowly pulled forward, but what she had seen was our car moving backwards, causing her insane behavior.

Sometimes we see things that just simply aren't there. We perceive things wrong. We believe that what we believe is reality instead of focusing on the one thing that really matters - truth.

If you've spent any time in this culture and speaking to the people who are soaked in it you may have heard this statement before, "That may be true for you, but it's not for me." The world today is living as if truth is relative and that you can make your own truth. What they see or what they believe is what they define as truth.

But we know better, don't we? We have the truth - Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life as He says He is in John 14:6. We know the words of our God are truth. "I, the Lord, speak the truth. I declare what is right." Isaiah 45:19. He is truth, He defines what is truth. And what we may think or believe can't change that.

Living that way, speaking God's truth and standing up for His Word, is not an easy thing to do. God's truth can be harsh, it can be offensive, it can make people mad. It's much more tempting to agree with the world when faced with situations where speaking the truth makes you unpopular or not very well liked. But it's not our words, it's God's words, which are the only ones that really matter.

So when facing a culture that believes truth is determined by what they believe and not what God says, we have to remember that there's a reason that we're told to "stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist" in Ephesians 6:14. It's part of our spiritual armor because we are in a battle.

One that can only be won - with Truth.

Emily