Day 2408 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


John 8:32 NIV

There's comfort in lies. They help us avoid the pain that sometimes comes with the truth. It's far easier to choose to believe something that makes sense to us than to be faced with the truth and forced to change because of it. Maybe that's why the truth isn't very popular. It requires us to act. It sparks this fire inside that refuses to leave us comfortable where we are. The truth brings with it this undeniable knowledge that makes change and responsibility mandatory. And well, those things are all but detestable in our world today.

Knowing the truth, knowing God's truth, will compel us to acknowledge our sins. It will open our eyes to indisputable fact that we're not perfect and that we never will be. It will push us to change our ways and fight every single day to stop allowing sinful temptations to retain control over us. God's truth meets us right where we are but demands that we never stay there. And again, that's just not something that our world is interested in because too many people have found solace in the lies of sin.

But what if we could see this superficial version of freedom that sin and selfishness offer for what it is? What if we opened our mind to the possibility that maybe there's something bigger and better than what we've chosen? What if we could see that the freedom we think we've found in the ability to do as we wish without considering the consequences was really enslavement to ourselves and the wickedness that has held us captive? What if we could admit that our truth was based solely on our desires and not what God ordained?

We think that making our own choices is what makes us free. We think that ignoring consequences and responsibility makes us free. But freedom is found when we can move beyond ourselves, beyond our desires, beyond our worries, and beyond the earthly priorities that we've lived according to for so long. True freedom is only found when we come to the end of ourselves and choose to dive into Christ and His plans for us because then we can finally let go. The freedom that is found in God allows us to lay everything down and simply walk by faith knowing that His will and His truth cannot be challenged or changed.

That same thing can't be said for the lies that seem easier to live by. Lies will be challenged because the truth is unrelenting. Lies will change constantly to keep up with the newest desires and mindsets that we come up with. Lies require far more work because they're built on the shakiest foundation there is. They're built on what we want and what makes us comfortable, not necessarily what we need. And that's why living a lie will never be good enough if we truly want freedom. Lies require us to defend them, the truth doesn't need that!

I know that doing as we see fit and living according to our selfish desires seems like the ultimate version of freedom. But in reality, it's only enslavement to ourselves. It's only a way of blindly giving sin control over our lives by letting it dictate our thoughts and actions when we allow those temptations to make our choices for us. That's not freedom. That's letting something else live our lives for us. And no matter how easy or comfortable that may be, the truth is that God created us for more than being puppets of evil.

As long as there is guilt, shame, anger, jealousy, gluttony, lust, pride, darkness, or selfish desires in our lives then we are not free. That's a fact. The bottom line is that we are all sinners with only one source of hope at any kind of actual freedom or peace. And that hope is in Jesus Christ. Only when we lay ourselves and our desires down and let Him take the throne in our lives will we know what it's like to be free. We can spend our lives running away from God's truth, but as long as we're running then we're nothing but slaves to the fear of the impending truth that we know is inescapable.

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