Bible Study & Devotional Day 136
🔴 The Truth Will Set You Free
Contributing Writer: Tiffiany Langston
I’m convinced that one of the most difficult undertakings in this life is honesty with self.
We will go to great lengths to stay comfortable, avoid change, and not ‘see’ the person staring back at us in the mirror for who they truly are.
Where are you currently? Emotionally, mentally and physically.
I’ve surely been there! Unsure of how to answer that question because I hadn’t taken the time to do the required self examination with honesty. By the grace of God, I got fed up with myself and the pretentious life I was living. I now set aside time to do what God desires for me to do, to create lasting change.
In crying out to God for clarity and understanding of who I was, He responded by leading me to do the hard work of what I like to call ‘heartwork’. Where the fantasy I was holding onto needed to be broken down and seen for what it really was – a coping mechanism. I needed to see for myself that I was looking in all the wrong places for measures of safety, security, and identity.
I had very little trust in myself, others and God and that was the truth I needed to confess, which set me free.
Getting honest about the realities of who I was, what shaped my thoughts, behaviors and how destructive I was becoming to myself and the relationships I had -brought me not only spiritual healing, but emotional healing, also.
For the first time in my life I experienced positive, lasting growth.
God gently and patiently guided me through a process that felt very necessary for my emotional healing. It was the r.e.a.l process (reflect, examine, accept and let go). I had no idea how significant it would be for me to go before God and confess what I had been too prideful to admit once before.
At the start it was frustrating. I felt discouraged and like a complete failure, all while learning a better way. I fought it all the way through. God being who he is, knew I would be needing encouragement when I did and would send a word or someone to remind me not to give up.
My life and generations to come were at stake.
Jesus tells us in today’s reading from John 8:31-32 “If we hold to his teaching, we are really his disciples. Then we will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
To know the truth you have to be teachable, resisting the ego and the lies of the enemy. We have to see ourselves, and the world around us as it is, not as we would have it to be. Then we must go humbly before God and seek his help, his will and his way. Don’t be like the self-righteous Jews, who believed they knew better than Jesus.
Go before him today with honesty, so that you can live in freedom.
This devotional was submitted by Tiffiany Langston, a loving contributor to Our Given Purpose. Edited by Torrie Slaughter the founder of Our Given Purpose® in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Connect with Tiffiany Langston at www.tiffianylangston.com
