MAKING ROOM FOR TRUTH

I'm writing for Five Minute Friday and today's prompt is DOUBT. 

This week, I was listening to this interview with Meredith Brock, currently the CEO of Proverbs 31 Ministries.

Meredith had a very difficult upbringing and it created lots of chaos in her life.  

Thankfully, at 17, Meredith was given an opportunity to start again and God placed her with some godly mentors who taught her about God's deep love for her, and modelled for her what healthy relationships looked like.  

Several years later, she met her future husband, Mack - one of my  favourite songwriters, worship leaders, modern day psalmists.    At the time, Meredith doubted that she would have a future.   She doubted that she was good enough for more.  She thought it was too good to be true for her to have a healthy future.  

If you listen at the 22:53 minute mark, for about a minute, you'll hear her say this:

"I had never heard to really take captive your thoughts, to replace it with truth.   And I remember when I met Mack, I had read that book (Battlefield of the Mind) ............ But when I met Mack, I just thought 'this is too good to be true', and I remember Tracy saying to me, 'Don't you believe those lies............you stand in front of that lie and you tell it the truth, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and God has a hope and future for you'."

And I need to say the same thing to myself:  'don't you believe those lies ............. you stand in front of that lie and you tell it the truth!'.

What lies am I believing that cause me to doubt God's truth?   Because it seems one will displace the other.  

How do I dislodge those lies or even recognise them?    So many of them are deeply buried and show themselves as insecurity or unbelief or apathy.  

How do I see them or dislodge them?   Soaking.    Abiding.    Lots of time in the Word - God's very words to me, His truth.

Lots of time with the Living Word, whose very words are my daily bread, or should be.   Lots of time with the only One who can satisfy the deep longings, deep needs I have.   

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.    He was in the beginning with God.    All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.    In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  John 1:1-4

Jesus told His disciples, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.    And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  John 8:31,32

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."    John 6:35

".................but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst."  John 4:14

What do we hear when we read His words and they don't gel with our experience, or how we feel about ourselves, or our opinions or bias or theology or agenda or burdens?   We doubt.    We doubt His goodness, His ability, His faithfulness, His integrity, His sovereignty, His right to be King.

We doubt and we miss out, like the Israelites of old.  And we never enter that rest He has for us.  

This year, will we let Him dislodge those lies and doubts that need displacing?   

These photos are from one of our local creeks, whose very form was significantly changed and shaped by recent floods.    The locals are amazed and awestruck by the transformation.   

Will we let Him do the same in our lives, so that people are amazed by the transformation? 

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  2 Cor 3:18

I will keep soaking in the Word, in the presence of the King, so all those life-sucking lies come to the surface and are displaced by truth.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you will hear His voice:

“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion..."  Ps 95:6-8

I will Make Room for Him and His truth.    

Here is where I lay it down

Every burden, every crown

This is my surrender this is my surrender

Here is where I lay it down

Every lie and every doubt

This is my surrender

And I will make room for You

To do whatever You want to

To do whatever You want to

And I will make room for You

To do whatever You want to

To do whatever You want to, oh