God’s Word is Truth
How do you view the Bible?
Verse of the Day
‘Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.’
Today’s Devotional
Do you realize that Jesus prayed for you? It is recorded here in the book of John. Jesus was about to endure massive pain, humiliation, and death in order to secure your salvation and reconciliation with God. But before He endured that, He prayed for you. He was specific in His words to the Father, so that you would know that you were included in His prayer. Jesus says in John 17:20, “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.”
As He prayed for you, He asked the Father to make you holy with His truth. He asked God to teach you His words, which are truth.
So the question becomes, what are God’s words?
The easy answer is the Bible. And that’s partially correct. God speaks in many different ways. But if we want truth, and we want to have what Jesus prayed over us, maybe we should start with the easiest and most available option, which is the Bible. The Bible is a gift that we have in today’s society. We have the Bible in many languages, translations, and forms. I have access to the Bible from my phone and computer. The Bible is a gift that we often don’t use or take advantage of for a variety of reasons. The one I hear most often is that people are intimidated by the Bible or they simply don’t know where to start.
But Jesus prayed for us to be sanctified by God’s words. He prayed that we would be set apart FROM the corruption of the world FOR God’s own purposes. And that could only happen if we were taught the truth.
In my experience, there is a process for being taught. This process includes exposure, acceptance, understanding, and application. How many times do you have to hear something before it sinks in? It is probably a different number for each of us, but it is always a number greater than one. The repeated hearing or reading of something is exposure. Once you’ve heard something enough times that it “clicks”, then you have moved into acceptance. When you take something you’ve accepted and see it modeled or explained in a way that you begin to the “why”, you are moving toward understanding. Then you start to practice this thing in your own life, generally with some mistakes along the way, which is application.
Let’s use a simple example of this process. You have told your child a hundred times that kindness matters. She has had repeated exposure. Then she hears the same truth from a different source, and for whatever reason it “clicks”. That’s acceptance. Next, someone does something to your child that is really unkind, which leads to a very meaningful conversation of why kindness is important. This may or may not be followed by this same child being treated with extreme kindness. Finally, she begins to understand why kindness matters and how it makes you feel being treated both with kindness and meanness. Up to this point, she has not been applying the teaching that kindness matters. But once she begins to really accept and understand the importance of kindness, she has a choice. Will she choose to act in kindness to others? If she does, she is finally learning to apply what she is being taught.
Jesus prayed for us to be taught with God’s truth. We must partner with God to not only learn His truth, but to get to the point where we apply these truths in our lives. So we should start with exposure. Repeated exposure. And we should echo the prayer that Jesus prayed over us.
God, please teach us your truth. Please help us to read your Word and hear whatever you need us to hear. Help us to step away from the world and into your truth. Help us to use the Bible in a way that it shows us how to live today for your glory.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How can you increase your exposure to God’s truth?
How can you ask God to teach you the truth?
How can you express your gratitude to God for the gift of the Bible?
How willing are you as a student of God’s truth?