Knowing What Is True

God is with us.  God is for us.  God wants to help us be prepared for whatever difficulties and attacks we may face today and any day.  We are looking these days at tools God gives us, known as the Armour of God, so we can stand strong.

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Ephesians 6:13

What are these protections that help us? Here’s the first one.

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. Ephesians 6:14

While it is important that we practice telling the truth at all times, the essential advice God is giving us in this picture is that we are to get to know and wrap ourselves around with truth, the truth that God has given us in the Bible. 

Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.  John 17:17

There is something pro-active God wants us to do so when a moment of accusation, temptation, or attack comes our way we have things at the ready. We need to make a habit of reading God’s Word and asking God to teach us His ways so we know what truth looks like.

When Jesus encountered Satan and His accusations and attacks and things that were meant to bring doubt and fear to Jesus, what did Jesus do?  He quoted truth from God’s Word that He had put into His heart.

Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Luke 4:4

God’s promises, God’s commands, God’s warnings —they are all truth, plain and simple. If God says something, we can rest assured that how it is and how God will provide for us.  

If God warns us away from certain things we can be assured there is life-endangering harm if we proceed in self-will against His word.

Heavenly Father, we are meant to rely on You but You never intended that we would be passive and just let things happen to us.  We pray today that we would be diligent, just like soldiers prepare diligently for battle. 

Help us to read Your word, to hear good teachers explain things to us, maybe read helpful books – whatever it takes so we get to know what is true. 

We live in a world where lies swirl all the time and we need our hearts and minds to be grounded in truth so we can stand firm.  Thank you for Your Holy Spirit who lives in us to help us know truth and filter out lies.  As we pray, give us humility and grace to listen and adjust our ideas to Your truth. Amen

So, we must know truth and then we must put truth into practice. That’s what we’ll speak about next time.