Speak His Truth

4/14/2021

Written By: Nancy Purtlebaugh

Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. John 8:32 NIV

This past Sunday at church, Josh (our lead minister) said something that stuck with me. “We are called to be counter-cultural.” That’s hard sometimes, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s just easier to go with the flow. God doesn’t call us to an easy life, but to live for Him.

For a while now, there are some catch phrases that have made me pause because they are not biblical. One of them is “Speak Your Truth”. Most of the time when I see or hear this phrase, it’s not used in a biblical way. It’s often used in a way that calls attention to our version of the truth. Sometimes it glorifies things that are opposite of what Jesus taught.

Friends, we have to be careful of falling into this. While it’s tempting to speak our truth, we must ask --- does it line up with His truth? (Now let me clarify-if you are telling your story/testimony to point others back to Jesus and what He did in your life-PLEASE keep doing that).

From the time I was around the age of 12, I struggled with self image issues. This eventually turned into years of battling an eating disorder. My “truth” was I was overweight and needed to lose weight. The more I fed my truth the further I got away from His truth. I would look in the mirror and see things that were not there. I weighed anywhere between 80 (at my lowest) to 100 lbs (at my highest) during this time. My truth wasn’t truth at all. I was feeding a lie, while starving myself literally and spiritually.

Can you imagine if people said to me—“it’s okay girl, speak your truth! You do you!” You are probably thinking, there is no way people would have said that. Honestly, they did and they still do. We still do the same thing to people in a variety of different scenarios by not pointing them back to His truth. There were also plenty of people who led me back to truth. My family, some other adults and friends helped me during this time. I had a sweet woman who fed me nuggets of scripture to hold onto that I still speak out loud when I am struggling today. She was very loving and gentle with me, but reminded me of what God said about me and how I was to treat my body. She spoke His truth over me. I began to see that who I was (and am) was more about Whose I was.

When Jesus encountered people who were not living the way they were supposed to, He was gentle and loving with them. He always gave them hope and a reason to believe in Him, and He would speak truth to them. Even the hard truths. All because He knew there was a better way for them to live. That better way was and is with Him.

There are many examples of this in scripture, but one is in John chapter 4. Jesus was traveling through Samaria and came to a well. He was thirsty and asked a Samaritan woman for a drink. She knew He shouldn’t be speaking to her so she questioned Him about it, without realizing He was Jesus. He basically told her who He was and how she could live a better life with Him. He spoke of himself, Jesus, being the living water which she would never thirst from again. He gave her a better way, but also wanted her to live a new life. So He talked with her. He asked her to get her husband, and she said she didn’t have one (her version of the truth).

Jesus knew the whole story and confronted her. She had been married multiple times and was currently living with a man she wasn’t married to. In verses 23-26 He tells her about real truth, about how she can be saved, and how she should be worshiping, and then reveals that He is Jesus. She believed and told many others and they also believed. Jesus could have left her with her version of the truth. Instead He took the time to share His truth, THE TRUTH. It saved her from a life of heartache and sin—and ultimately filled her with the Living Water and eternal life.

Oftentimes, when we are speaking our truth it is centered on us. So today, I’m going to challenge you to speak His truth, so that others may know and believe. Replace your truth with His Truth! Here are a few Truths He says about His followers (make sure you read the actual verses, I’m condensing and paraphrasing)

· We have eternal life through His death, burial, and resurrection-John 11:25-26

· We are loved and bought at a tremendous price-John 3:16

· We are forgiven-Ephesians 1:7-8

· We were chosen by Him and created for His purpose-1 Peter 2:9

· We have all confidence in Him-Philippians 1:6

· We are victorious!!-Romans 8:37-39.

There are so many more! If you have questions, please reach out to a minister or someone from your small group. Hopefully, like my story and the woman at the well’s, you and others can be set free from whatever your version of the truth is, and will be able to live in the glorious freedom of His truth.