Tag: truth

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Tell Yourself the Truth

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The Lord upholds us with His hand. These are statements of faith and trust. These come from Psalm 37, which sits among the poetry and hymnody God supplied for us. He gave these words to us through a variety of writers to help says the things that we are feeling. These words also serve to address our feelings.

For example, in Psalm 42 and 43, we read of a conversation that David has with his soul. He asked his soul a couple of important questions:

“Why are you cast down? Why are you disquieted within me?”

These are real things that we all feel. We become downcast. We live in the disquiet. There’s noise all about us. We hear so much. We read so much. Our smart phones, if we let them, can steal Sabbath from us. Rest becomes elusive. Our sleep is uneasy at best, nonexistent at worst.

What did David do? He prayed his despair. He spoke his doubts – out loud at some point for he turned this time of turmoil into song. He gave these lyric lines to the choirmaster. It is labeled as a “Maskil of the sons of Korah.”  From what I understand, these words were turned into contemplative poem by these servants at the Temple. Another form of maskil speaks of how to serve with discretion.

Here, I see the way to handle despair, defeat, and doubt so that it does not swallow us down into full-blown depression. Sometimes you just have sing and sing things that are troublesome and unpleasant. There should be place in our lives for lament.

Pour Out the Pains

Jeremiah the prophet never would have survived if God had not allowed him to pour out his pain. Lamentations is book of funeral songs sung over the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people of Israel. And, yet, what do we discover there at the heart of this wilderness of dirges?

Why, we read these very words:

“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him” (Lamentations 3:21-24).

There’s our answer. Speak things into your soul that form a frame of reference built upon the Rock and fortressed with towers from the Truth. Jeremiah did this, and he kept delivering the message of God to the people of God. So very few heeded what he preached, but he carried on. His life here on earth was one of little joy so it seems. Still, his soul held hope.

Please, don’t do damage to yourself by allowing your disappointment and discouragement to become an idol. This happens, and I know an idol is being formed when I hear this: “You could never understand because you have never been through what I have been through.”

True, so, so true. But what of Christ? Who do you say that He is? Do you believe in the records of His life and words? He was tempted in all ways in order to be our representative High Priest. He lived as a man, died as a man, and was resurrected as a man. Jesus Christ, our Redeemer is faithful and true, knows everything that we are about.

The Redeemer Lives

Job knew this and held fast to it. His series of trials befuddled and frustrated him. The strange and accusatory counsels from his “friends” added to the burden of pain he carried. He felt alone and forsaken at times. His integrity was all that he had.

Integrity is drawn from the word “integer” that is used in mathematics. An integer is a whole number. Job rested in the wholeness that he knew God had given to him by grace through his faith. Like Jeremiah in the middle of his laments, Job spoke truth to himself in the midst of his troubles:

“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

“And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27)

Job’s expectation was that Christ would stand triumphant on earth, and that he would see this Day of the Lord. Still, he remained honest and confessed the weakness and heaviness upon his heart.

Let’s return to Psalms 42 and 43. We read of how David ordered his soul with what he had in his mind and spirit. His words mirror what Job and Jeremiah declared. They are full of hope and expectation.

“Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

This is what David said to the feelings. And, I am thinking that he said these things in a whisper, at least at the start. I am not sure he was so ready to shout them.

Assurance is a remarkable, wonderful, and elusive thing, even for the most spiritual among us. I imagine that Peter, John, Paul, Mary, Martha, and the others weathered crushing seasons of doubt. Like the man in Mark 9, all of us have had moments where we cast our cares upon Him with these words: ““I believe; help my unbelief!” (see Mark 9:24).

I think David was having this kind of doubtful moment in these psalms. But he knew his Redeemer and sought his comfort.

Darkness can suffocate us. In those hours, may we let His night song form our prayers to the God of our lives.

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The Woman and Her Bucket

High noon, it was, and such a strange hour to come to the village well. This woman tried to sneak around right there in the bright, hot sun. She plotted to drop her pail, get her water, and be gone before anyone could notice her.

Her ways were well known in Sychar; the tawdry details of her life filled the gossipy chatter that often went on here. The “water cooler” talk of those days revolved around her many failed relationships.

She’d become fairly adept at fast-filling her pot and getting home. This way she avoided her neighbors who brought their buckets during the day’s cooler hours.

This day would be different, however. She would find a Man – tired from travelling and all alone – resting at the well. She moved quickly, wanting to get her water and escape. Maybe this Man would be too weary to take note of her presence.

Men! They always presented problems for her. She knew them pretty well – she had encountered quite a few during her years. Mostly, they had left her disappointed and disillusioned. She sized up this one with a quick glance and discerned that this Man was Jewish. That bit of information caused her to relax – Jews don’t speak to Samaritans like her, she reasoned, and she let down her guard.

A Request

“Excuse me,” spoke this Stranger. “Could you give me a drink?”

The interruption both startled and annoyed her. “Typical man,” she thought to herself. “He wants something – just like all the rest.”

“Seriously?” she answered. “You’re a Jew, I’m Samaritan – aren’t you afraid my water will make you ‘unclean’?”

Jesus responded, “Really, you should be asking Me for a drink. If you knew God and who I am, you would ask for the ever fresh, living water that I can give.”

This woman marveled at the offer. The Man had no bucket and the well was old and deep. How was He going to get this water for her? She thought it was a trick and decided to play along with Jesus. “This well is an ancient one — it was dug by Jacob himself. Are you telling me that you’re a better man than him?”

She played herself right into Jesus’ trap. He spoke to her of a different kind of water, water that refreshes the spirit and leaves one never to be thirsty again. “The water I give,” Jesus said, “is a gushing fountain of endless life.”

Those words struck a chord within her. “Sir, give me this water,” she said. Her words carried a tone of hope. This touched her like no other promise she had ever heard before. Could it be true?

When Jesus asked her to first fetch her husband, her answer was, for once, honest and forthright:  “I have no husband.” Something big began to happen, a saving thing, a redemptive encounter unfolded.

There was no deception in her now. She withered as Jesus recounted her relationship history – five broken marriages and the unlawful living arrangement she had with her present partner.

Worship Redefined

She knew a bit about religion – perhaps she had tried to worship the Lord. The mount near Sychar had been something of a holy place. At that time, among the peoples of the region, Samaritans were ostracized and none dared try to make his way to the Jerusalem Temple to make an offering.

Yet in that moment, we see Jesus begin to define what worship really is. It is a matter of the heart, not a matter of place and time. “The hour is now that true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth,” He declared to her.

The climactic moment in this whole encounter is described in John, chapter 4. The woman speaks of the Promised Person, the Messiah, the Anointed One. It had always been her understanding that the Savior would come and “tell us all things.”

“I AM the One,” Jesus said to her. It was a direct, declarative statement defining the reality of who He is. This weary, worn out, thirsty woman got the message straight from the Messiah’s lips. He came to this woman, told her her own story as only He could tell it, and then revealed Himself to her.

Result:  she became a witness.  Suddenly full of living water, she dropped her bucket and ran back to the village. She gathered her neighbors and led them out to meet Jesus. His words touched many from her town. His message was so profound to them that they begged Him to keep talking.

Jesus and His disciples stayed in a Samaritan village for two more days. “We have heard him ourselves and know that this indeed is the Christ, the Savior of the world” was the testimony of Sychar’s people.

This is how God works His wonders in the fields that are ready to harvest. There are people everywhere who are thirsty for life. They struggle under the weight of their bad choices and poor surroundings.

And, then, Jesus shows up, making Himself known.

He has made us for this work. He has spoken to us about who He really is.

May we respond as this woman did. May we be mighty witnesses for the reality of the Christ, the Savior of the World.