Holding to truth

So how on earth to we avoid the web of deception, the tangled web that the enemy weaves like a trap? We know that we have legitimate needs and we know that those needs wrongly met can open us up to temptation. As I pondered this, I have been thinking about my own life and the things God has revealed to me about why I have gone astray, and got pulled off track. The reality in my life is that there have been, and I am sure still are, beliefs that I hold that do not line up with biblical truth. It is difficult to hold on to truth if what you think is true is not. Hebrews 3:12 gives us a clue here.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God

God emphasises many many times throughout scripture that it is our hearts that are his focus. Our whole-hearted commitment to him, in response to his whole-hearted commitment to us. He is not interested in cheap words, that mean nothing, but true devoted hearts. We know from 1 Samuel 16:7 that

the Lord looks at the heart

We all have developed, due to the circumstances, family culture, the environment we grew up in, and our life experiences, a set of beliefs about ourselves, about God, and about the world. This set of beliefs shapes how we interact with the the world around us, how we interact with God, and with others. They dictate our behaviour.

We can know all sorts of things in our heads, which may or may not be true, but it is our hearts that dictate the way we are. I can sing out loud in a church service that, ‘God is good all the time’, but if my life experiences have taught me to believe otherwise, deep down in my heart, regardless of what I say, then I will not be likely to trust him. Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us an inkling that trusting him is what keeps us on the straight and narrow:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight

How often God laments the state of his people’s hearts that are, “far from him”. It is a symptom of the brokenness of the world we live in and the sickness of sin that entered that we try to do life without him, disconnected from him. That is why Jesus’ mission was to reconcile the world back to him, to bring about the reconnection that was lost.

In 1999, I stopped believing that God was a killjoy, and decided to take a risk, to believe the truth of the gospel. That in fact he is good news for the world, for me. One belief changed that set me on the path to true life and freedom. Repentance is exactly that – changing the way I think. Slowly, oh so slowly over the years, I have seen the reality of Romans 12:2 unfold in my life.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

It is the truth that brings freedom in our lives. Gradually over the years, the belief that I was worthless, unlovable, ugly, shameful, unforgivable, a walking disaster, a failure, and so much more, is being replaced by the truth of what God declares about me. His love is transforming me, removing fears, removing shame, removing performance, and filling me with his delight, his peace and more. In that transformation, comes a shift of beliefs about how I interact with people. Confidence increases. The impact of wounds of the past go.

As I allow him to renew my mind with truth, and start to believe that I am safe in him, secure, protected, provided for, cared for, loved, it means that I let go of the behaviours of an orphan and start to walk in my identity as a beloved child of God, one of the family, welcomed and accepted. All the behaviours that I indulged in to be accepted, to belong, to try and control things to make myself feel safe, the independence that was borne out of a lack of trust, out of deep rejection and abandonment, to medicate my pain, they can go! Psalm 139:23-24 has been my prayer in this regard.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

But this is not an endless striving to fix myself. This is not an unhealthy focus on myself and my issues. This is being led by the Spirit and allowing him to expose things in his timing, knowing that he will do just what he says in these verses. We ended the last blog with James 4:7 which encourages us to

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The submitting is allowing him to show me the truth of what is going on in my heart. It is being willing to acknowledge that truth. Confession is me telling the truth. Being honest about what is really in my heart, not what I think ought to be there. I tell him when I am fearful, or angry, or confused, or sad. I am brutally honest. Truth telling is powerful, look at the psalms! The submission comes in the repentance of allowing him to change my mind with his truth, the real truth, from his perspective. As I line up my heart to belief truth, I am free from the clutches of the one who has lied to me all along and told me rubbish about who I am, who God is and how things are. Confessing the truth according to what God says, believing it, putting my faith in it, this is freedom as it says in Romans 10:9. The pattern remains the same for working out my salvation. By faith we are saved.

… if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

I believe that one reason why, as we look around the body of Christ and see deception, see leaders falling, see people succumbing to temptation, is because we do not pay enough attention to this issue of the susceptibility of our hearts to be deceived. Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

It could be tempting to despair after reading this verse but Ezekiel 36:26 gives us this promise of a solution for the resistance to God and his truth:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

However, I believe this new heart does not come overnight. We work out our salvation; sanctification is about process. We are transformed from glory to glory, being washed with the truth of the word, learning to walk in fellowship with Holy Spirit, submitting ourselves to the process of healing and restoration, listening to his voice, receiving his love which drives out all the fears that stop us from trusting, learning to be dependent, leaning not on our own understanding but his. It is a journey of growing in the knowledge of him, learning to abide, to stay in the place of connectedness. That connection is the focus. It is a fundamental. As we lean in to the connection, removing anything that gets in the way of being close to him, we discover that we have changed, not by striving but by focussing on being with him.

Remaining in him has to be the greatest deterrent to deception. How can you be deceived when you abide in the One who is Truth?

I believe that there is another key. We have already mentioned the humility of acknowledging our weakness, of submitting to the Father but humility has another aspect that is important here. Orphans function in isolation, in disconnect. One of the other reconciliations, apart from us being joined with the Godhead, is the reconciliation of community. God did not plan for us to just be little islands, individually connected to him. He is all about community. He lives in a perfect, harmonious community of the trinity and he draws us into community in him and with one another. James 5:19-20 tells us:

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

I have blindspots. I need, oh, how I need, others to help me see the truth. I don’t want to end up wandering down ways that lead to any kind of death! So, part of this process of sanctification is being submitted to one another, to those around us. This includes being willing to learn, even from those younger than us. It is my privilege to be in a kind of mentoring role with several people who are significantly younger than me. One of the things I always say is that the discipleship journey that we walk together is never one way. The relationship that develops as I do life alongside them benefits me too. It is unusual for me to come away from a session with one of them without something that speaks to me. I am challenged by their lives, I am encouraged by their relationship with God, the different ways they engage with the Spirit and so often the conversation makes me ponder my own walk with the Spirit. But I also have those that I deliberately submit myself to, who know me well, understand the call of God on my life, pray for me and a to whom I have given permission to speak into what they see in me, especially if they see me going off track.

Firstly, I am going to God and asking him direct about things. But I am also talking things through with those close ones who ask insightful questions and help me see where wrong beliefs about myself or God might be causing deception. I am so grateful for these voices in my life, who help me continue to walk in truth. Imagine if Eve had paused and talked to God about what the snake was saying, or pondered with Adam first about this moment, involving God in that equation as they prayed together for wisdom! I’ll stop there for now.

Next time, I’ll consider some more safeguards against deception but for now, I’ll leave with these questions …

How do you engage with restoring your heart beliefs to truth?

Are you abiding in the vine that is Jesus?

Do you have ‘soul-friends’, close friends willing to speak truth to you, to do life alongside you?