What exactly does truth mean to you or me? I think it’s pretty much cut and dry for most people, and it is a choice from there how to act with their idea of truth. Some of us try to tell the truth, some of us try to live the truth, some ignore or change the truth and still others run from the truth that was planted in their hearts years ago. I have been in all of those positions through the course of my life.
I’ve been mulling all of this over since writing about the truth yesterday, after Gram quoted the verse, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me”. (John 14:6). How is Jesus the truth, and again, what does that mean to me?
In looking up truth in an exhaustive concordance, I also read that God is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. (Deut 32:4) The Holy Spirit is also truth …and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth…(John 14:16, 17). And (John 16:13) when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth…Even the word of God is truth (John 17:17) Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.
So each member of the Trinity is truth, and so is every word of God truth. Again, what does that mean to us? Ephesians 1:13 says that Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were seal with that Holy Spirit of promise. There’s the truth/trust relationship again. Truth creates trust, which leads to the next step, belief, because of God’s promise.
God has called Himself both truth and love. Truth and love exist equally in the nature of God. I have always heard Gram talk about God’s love, but I have to honestly say that I haven’t been able to grasp the concept that God loves ME. If a human loves me, I know it and I feel it. It gives me pleasure and joy to know that someone, like my Gram truly loves me. Why, then, have I not been able to grasp that about God? I know it, but I’ve only known the idea of it, not the deep down trusting satisfaction that I am loved. I read something not too long ago that said something like, “If we don’t really trust God to love us as He says, then we can’t trust Him to always do what’s best for us. We also can’t truly love Him back, because we don’t trust Him”.
I have heard Gram praying, even tonight, thanking God for his loving kindness. She thanks Him all the time for His love, and then goes on to pray for people she loves. She receives and believes, or trusts in the truth of His love for her, and in the very next breath, she speaks of her love toward others as she prays for them.
I am still so far away from understanding the pure love of my Father toward me, and I really don’t think I’m alone in this. I have all these preconceived notions about who I am, and why I can’t possibly be loved completely by God. God doesn’t love us because we are worthy of that love. He loves us because of His grace and who He is. Also, when you know someone loves you, you understand that they are pleased with you and want to spend time with you. Sometimes I spend my time thinking of all the things I could have done better, and forget that God gives grace for today, and does find pleasure in a relationship with me (and you). Yesterday, Gram said it best when she reminded me that parents don’t love their kids any more or less based on the child’s behavior, and neither does God.
What do we, as parents do as our hearts are filled with love for our kids? We laugh at their “cuteness” when they are small, we get choked up when they tell us they love us, we tell our friends all the important things our kids do right, and can we ever share enough stories or pictures of our kids? Not a day goes by that we do not feel love for our kids. No matter what – and as they get older the “no matter what’s” get bigger - I love my children enough to die for any one of them.
Oprah has coined a phrase called the “Ah-ha” moment. I’ve heard and read it all before, that God loves us as His children, but yesterday, I had an “Ah-ha” moment when Gram spoke of my love toward my own kids. God is our father. God is truth. God loves us as his children. He would, and has, died for us. Don’t you think that He has all of the thoughts and feelings that we have for our own children, only on a perfect, supernatural level? If I stop thinking of myself as an unworthy adult, and more as God describes me – as His own child, then I can begin to have a small understanding of His delight in me because He is my father! Only then, can I return His love as He wants me to. He has even loved me through my struggles of not feeling His love!
It is my prayer that each time my heart swells with compassion and love for my kids, I will be reminded that God is also my parent, and has a more perfect compassion for me as his “kid”. As I trust in His love, I will be able to believe in His truth, and seek truth for my own life in ways I have never viewed it or practiced it. Once I trust Him to love me, I can also love him back, and show the truth to others. Just as truth and trust go hand in hand, so do truth and love.
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