Thursday, May 5, 2011

Recognizing What’s True

 

15 If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

—The words of Jesus from John 14:15-17

 

Has anyone ever told you something that was just really hard for you to believe? You weren’t sure whether or not it was true?

I know that every one of you enjoys stories. A good novel engages you and you simply can’t put it down. Out of the hundreds of television shows, you have a few that you really follow closely. Most surely you have a favorite movie or two. In every case, you feel drawn to the book, TV show, or movie because of the story it tells. Even the so-called “reality shows” actually tell a story.

You've enjoyed stories since those days when mom or dad read to you just before you went to sleep at night. Each one of those children’s stories had some lesson to teach you or something fun to explain. The person who wrote those stories did so to bring joy to children.

Some of those children’s stories told you about animals that can talk. For example, in the Winnie the Pooh stories, A. A. Milne has created a whole forest full of animals that talk and have adventures. The only human in those stories is Christopher Robin. And, he only appears in the stories once in a while. The rest of the time, Milne has written about Pooh Bear, Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and Baby Roo. And, if mom or dad read a Winnie the Pooh story to you when you were a child, I imagine you enjoyed it quite a lot.

But, I also know that as you grew older, you realized that real, live rabbits, bears, pigs, tigers, and kangaroos don’t talk to each other in the English language. Even so, it was fun to read a story about talking animals because it helped us imagine what it might be like if animals did talk to one another.

Sometimes when someone tells us something, it is hard for us to know for sure whether or not what they are telling us is true. When we have a hard time deciding, we might say, “I don’t believe you.” In order to believe something, we have to know that it is true.

When something is absolutely true, it has a way of helping us believe in whatever that something is. For example, the Bible tells us that on one occasion Jesus’ mother, Mary, came to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, before Jesus was born. Elizabeth was also going to have a baby. Elizabeth told Mary, “You are blessed because you believe what the Lord has told you will happen.”

You see, an angel had appeared to Mary many months before and told her that she was going to have a baby, that his name would be “Jesus,” and that he would grow up to become the Messiah. Mary believed what the angel told her. She believed what the angel told her because in her heart she knew it was absolutely true. And, she knew this in her heart because God gave her the ability to recognize that it was true.

Understanding what is true and what isn’t true is a gift from God. And, that is a really important lesson we all need to learn. God empowers the Holy Spirit—who lives within the heart of every person who believes in the life-transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ—to help us know for certain what is true and what isn’t.

Will you pray with me?

Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to give us eternal life. Thank you for helping us understand what is true and what isn’t. Help us, more and more, to become people who believe Your truth. We pray in Jesus’ matchless Name. Amen.

Copyright © 2011 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.

 

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