Sift Through the Entertaining to Find the Sustaining

We watched part of Shark Week which highlights activities and history of sharks. It’s pretty dramatic at times, especially when the larger sharks are showcased. On one episode the crew fought a 70 foot shark! Huge beyond imagination – longer than our house.  I was shocked and awed by it all. I even shared some of the information with a couple of friends.

The next evening we were talking about it with our family.  They asked me if I had read the scrolling information at the end of the show. I had missed it entirely.  They said it was hard for them to read so they slowed it down with their DVR. The words told the truth regardless of what we’d seen. “Dramatized” was the main word for me. The producers had deliberately misled the listening audience. I had been misled. Until I read the truth I had believed a lie. Seeing it in writing I could no longer believed the lie, nor could I share the lie with anyone else. It was all staged for their own profit.  I had been snookered into believing something I had seen. But it couldn’t be backed up with truth.

There is much in this world that we can learn. There is also much that isn’t true. How do we know the difference? How do we sift through the entertaining to find the sustaining? How do we click through the fiction to find reality? How do we keep from being misled and let God lead us into all truth?

Preachers give us the food that teaches us how to live. Teachers give us insight that they get from much study. But we must take in the Word for ourselves. We must be students of God’s Truth. Daily, as we read His Word and ask for the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding we will know quickly what is false and what is true. Without the Holy Spirit teaching us as we take in the Word we will stay confused and believe whatever we hear. Our faith will waver and our hearts will wonder as we try to mix everything together and find the answers.

Oh beloved, run to the Truth this morning. Let God reveal Himself to you and then let Him guide you into all truth!  He will not only speak facts to cover your fiction, He will speak love to cover your affections. He knows your feelings, He knows your desires and He knows your dreams. He also knows that many times you followed the lie because it seemed easier, felt better and required little if anything from you. But God says if you will trust Him today, He will love you beyond your wildest dreams and show you how to live. Others may have told you they were true but left you fallen and alone. He will replace your mistakes and your missteps, your broken heart and dreams with His friendship, His fellowship and His life. Then you will be able to walk in freedom, share the Truth and gain treasures in heaven. As you grow in His Truth, you will be more than a listener; you’ll be an overcoming believer!

God is true and His Word tells you the truth: that He loves you and He’s for you always and forever and that’s all that really matters.

 

John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Psalm 119:160 The very essence of Your words is truth; all Your just regulations will stand forever.

Psalm 19:7 The instructions of the LORD are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. (AMP)

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.