Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. John 17:17
Yesterday afternoon, a lady from church called to ask me if Jon had broken his ankle. No, I reassured her. He slid on some ice in the driveway Friday morning, but he just twisted it. It’s fine.
This morning, I got another call from another lady asking the same question. Nope. No broken ankles here. Hours later I got a call from someone else who had heard he’d broken his leg, then hurt his good ankle.
Now between traveling over Christmas and canceling church services for snow, nobody has seen Jon for a couple of weeks and maybe that contributed to it. Or maybe it was just that the story sounded reasonable. It was icy Friday morning, after all. I think the story caught on because we have an innate ability, maybe even a desire, to believe the worst.
While this works out to the advantage of gossip-mongers and reality television show producers, it really messes with our relationship with Christ. And the enemy knows it messes with us. He slinks in and whispers things like, “God may have saved you, but He’s never going to use you, not with your past.” Or maybe, “After a mistake like that, you’d do best to let someone else do it from now on.” Or even, “There’s got to be a catch.”
They sound reasonable. They sound bad. And we believe them. And we live our lives in the long shadow of a lie that’s too easy to believe.
That’s not what Jesus wants for us. In fact, in His prayer in John 17, He prayed for God to sanctify us by His truth. Then He clarified, “Your word is truth.” God gets the last word. It doesn’t matter what gets whispered in our ears. The truth about us is not determined by our past, our situation, or our fortunes. It is determined by God Himself.
The truth about who we are as believers – truth that we’re loved, accepted, gifted, blessed – sets us apart, lifts us up, dignifies us. How would it change our lives, our relationships, our churches if we could grasp and cling to the truth about who Christ Jesus says we are?
Now make it personal… how would it change you?