Are you Living on Truth or a Dare?

I love to look through old pictures. It’s funny to see how photography and cameras have changed along the years. Mother and Daddy took pictures with an old Brownie Hawkeye. You placed a huge bulb in the reflector for the flash. You also looked down into the viewfinder rather than holding it up to your eye.




Among the old photos there’s one of my friend Pam that I see occasionally. It’s a photo of... her peering over the top of my parents’ house. She’s on top of the porch roof looking down at us! We seemed to like to play truth or dare back then. Our truth wasn’t too awful and our dares were fairly benign, but there Pam is completing her dare. It was a tall old house and I don’t even remember how she got up there, but she was evidently very nimble back in the day. I still laugh when I think about it. I don’t remember the dare, but I do remember the photo. I don’t remember what we were doing that day, but the photo lets me know we were having fun.



Truth or dare. For teens who played the game, the truth could be quite awkward, as the questions were meant to embarrass. Often completing a dare was the easier way to go. Isn’t life like this? We choose everyday whether to live in the truth or not. When we don’t know the truth, or we don’t want to live that way, we choose dare. We dare to escape the confines of God’s Word, we dare to branch out and live our own life, just the way we want to, we dare to go where “angels fear to tread”. Then we wonder, how did we ever get stuck on the roof? We get in a tight spot and we need help to get ourselves out of the place we thought we were so sure we wanted to go.



For parents we watch our children grow up and find that many times they go the opposite direction you raised them to go. It’s hard to see them playing truth or dare with their lives, the life we as parents so love. That life that we gave ours up for to raise and groom and prepare not just for life, but hopefully for heaven as well.

Are you stuck in a dare? Did you decide the Truth was too hard, too narrow, too confining? Did you just mean to step out into the shallows, but now you find yourself up to your neck in troubles? Right about now, you’re wishing you could climb down from your situation and climb into your Father’s Arms where it’s totally safe and secure Maybe you were given free reign to do your own thing, but it’s brought you to the brink of disaster. The daring life is no longer fun. It’s a hard taskmaster but you’re not sure how to live any other way.



Oh beloved, it’s time to go back to the Truth! This Truth won’t embarrass you, won’t reveal your weaknesses or your sins. This Truth will pick you up, straighten your life and give you a firm footing to walk on. It’s not just a momentary fix or answer to a game, it’s a way of life. And no matter how far you’ve veered from God’s Truth, He’s waiting to take you back to Himself. It may seem daring to trust your life to God and let Him call the shots, but this is one dare that will lead you into All Truth, and God’s Word is the only Truth you’ll ever need. If your children or other loved ones have veered from the truth, you can trust God for them as well. Dare to come boldly to the throne of Grace of your needs and for the needs of those you love. God is always willing to answer the prayer of faith and to seek those who have gone astray.



Run to His Word this morning. It’s the Truth! Dare to let yourself live in His light, so that you will always walk in a way of success and courage, no matter what. Dare to let go of self and grab onto Him! He knows your hurts, your anguish, your embarrassment, even when no one else knows a thing, He knows it all. He loves you in spite of everything and He’s for you no matter what and that, beloved, is all that really matters.



Psalm 119:176 I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.



Ephesians 4:18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him.



Psalm 107:6-7 “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble, and He rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live.



Psalm 130:4 But You offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear You.



1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.