Whatever is True

WHATEVER IS TRUE

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17

Last week we experienced two days of relentless, oppressive winds. It rearranged my front porch furniture, ripped rugs off the clothesline, and caused drivers to keep an iron grip on their steering wheels. As a kid I learned that the word windy has a duo definition. Whenever a certain neighbor invited himself in to sit a spell, he took that expression to new, expanded timeframes. An hour or three later when he said his good-byes, my dad would say something to the effect, “Nice guy, but he sure is windy.” To which mom would say, “Great guy. You just have to let most of what he says go in one ear and out the other.”

There is no one windier then our enemies – the propaganda of the world that distorts God’s Word, our persuasive sinful nature that diminishes the consequences of sin, and the deception of the father of lies who by his cunning leads our thoughts astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:3).

To think right and win the fight, we must think on whatever is true (Philippians 4:8). Christ is the truth (John 14:6) and the Holy Spirit our guide is the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). If we are not rooted in truth we will be tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming (Ephesians 4:25). If we doubt God and fall for the enemies’ tall tales, we’ll be like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind (James 1:6).

To be like a tree planted by streams of water instead of chaff that the wind blows away, we must delight in the law of the LORD, and meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1). There is a difference between reading our Bibles and meditating on it. To really know God’s Word and have it change us, we must think on it, ponder, and study. That doesn’t happen with a quick read through for the day or by osmosis because our Bible is situated just so on the nightstand. To think thoughts that run plumb to what God’s Word says, we must delight in it, dig deep, and let it direct our lives.

Truth is not what we feel, not what we see, not what the winds of the enemy tells us. Truth is the infallible Word of God. Does it have the first and last word in your thought life today?

Think on it: The most effective way to think on whatever is true is to memorize Scripture. Choose a verse or more that you’ll memorize this week. Need a place to begin? Memorize Philippians 4:8 or Psalm 1.

A man [or woman] who loves the Word of God, a man who dwells upon what it says, a man who keeps a little text in his mind to think about as he is walking on his way, and that meditates upon it day and night, "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."  If you can find a man who carries out this direction and doesn't prosper, you can doubt the inspiration of the first Psalm; but find the man first.

J. Hudson Taylor

grace and peace,

Lenae