EP 74: Standing in the TRUTH
My youngest daughter and I just got home from a fun-filled mother-daughter retreat our homeschool co-op sponsors every January. The theme of this year’s retreat was “Standing in the Truth.”
In this week’s episode, I’m sharing the major points of a talk I gave to the girls and their moms at the retreat on the same topic. I hope you’ll listen in and let me know what you think in the comment section below.
Show Notes
VERSES CITED:
- John 14:6 – “”I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
- Acts 4:12 – “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
- James 2:19 – “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”
- 2 Peter 1:10 – “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.”
- Matt. 7:22-23 – “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?”
- Ephesians 4:13-14 – “…no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine….”
- Psalm 139:13 – “For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:31 – “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – “Pray without ceasing.”
- Philippians 4:6 – “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
- James 4:8 – “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”
- Hebrews 10:23-25 – “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful….”
- Isaiah 64:6 – “…all our righteous acts are like filthy rags….”
- Ephesians 6:10-18 – “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God…”
RELATED LINKS:
- EP 27: God Wants the Whole Pie
- EP 28: Bible Memory Tips
- One-Year Bible Reading Plan
- Free Printable Prayer Guides
- Armor of God Printables
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Standing in the TRUTH
full transcript from Episode 74
Hello friend. Welcome to Episode 74 of Loving Life at Home. This week’s topic is Standing in the Truth.
My daughter and I just got back from a Mother Daughter retreat that our homeschool group sponsors every January, and I was asked to be ”the keynote speaker” for the event, which is really just a highfalutin way of saying that I gave the very final talk of the weekend [to about 30 attendees] on this topic of Standing in the Truth.
And since I love acrostics, I of course came up with an acrostic for my talk (T-R-U-T-H) and the elements I think are essential for standing in the truth, which is…
- T: Trust in Jesus
- R: Read His Word
- U: Understand your purpose
- T: Talk to God daily, and
- H: Hold fast to your hope
So I thought for this week’s episode I’d just go through those points with you, and tell you basically what I told those girls and their moms.
My first point?
T = Trust in Jesus.
I like to talk about trusting in Jesus rather than just trusting in God, because so many people mean so many different things when they say God these days. Some of them are talking about a force. Some of them are talking about the ”God within” or the ”God in nature.”
They think everything’s God or nothing’s God, or God is just a feeling or the good side of the force or some other new age-y concept. And I think there’s a little bit less ambiguity when we talk about trusting in Jesus.
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes unto the Father but through me.”
And Acts 4:12 tells us, “There is salvation and no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given by which men should be saved.”
So the first step in standing in truth is to know the truth and commit your life to the truth.
James 2:19 tells us, “You believe God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.” So obviously this is more than just a head -knowledge of Christ that we’re talking about. To trust in Jesus is to commit your life to Him and to let Him be Lord of your life.
2 Peter 1:10 urges us, ”Wherefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, for if you do these things, you will never stumble.”
And In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus talks about the fact that some people, when they stand before the throne of judgment, will say, lord, didn’t we cast out demons and do miracles in your name? And he will have to say to them, ”Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you.”
So it’s possible for people to trust in their works rather than trusting in Jesus. Works are evidence of salvation, they’re not the basis of our salvation. And so whereas James tells us, “Ffaith without works is dead,” we know that the faith is essential and that precedes the works.
If you are trusting in anything except for the finished work of Jesus on the cross, then your faith is misplaced. So make sure that you’re trusting in Jesus if you want to stand in the truth, then…
R = Read His Word.
One of the moms in her talk earlier in the weekend talked about federal agents who are tasked with recognizing counterfeits. They don’t spend all their time feeling of counterfeits and trying to discern what makes them different.
They spend their time becoming so familiar with the real deal, with the actual currency of the United States, that they can easily recognize when something is off. And we need to do the same thing with God’s Word.
We need to be so steeped in the word of God and so well rooted in the word of God — we need to read it and memorize it and let our roots sink deep into it — so that when we hear something that does not line up with Scripture, we will immediately recognize it as being faulty.
The Bible talks about Satan being like a roaring lion who prowls about seeking somebody to devour. And that is always true. But he does not always appear as a roaring lion. Sometimes he comes as an angel of light — even an angel of light that quotes scripture.
When Jesus was in the wilderness and was being tempted by Satan, Satan was quoting the Word of God to him. But he was doing so by taking verses out of context and misapplying them. But Jesus, what did He do? He answered back with the Word of God Himself, properly applied. And we want to be able to do that too.
We need to be able to recognize when things are being taken out of context, when they’re being twisted and perverted to mean something that God didn’t intend for them to mean. And the only way that we can do that is to be so well-acquainted with God’s Word that we know what it says and we know what it means, and we do our very best to live by it.
In the book of Acts, the Bereans are commended for the fact that everything they heard, they would examine in light of Scripture. We need to do the same.
Our goal is to be ”mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ, so that we won’t be like children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every window of doctrine, or by the trickery of men, or by craftiness and deceitful scheming.”
When I think about something being carried about by every wind of doctrine, I envision what we see so commonly when we drive through West Texas. and that is tumbleweeds. Those things, they don’t have any root, and they just blow about, scattering their seeds here and there and everywhere.
I don’t want to be like the tumbleweeds that are not rooted. I want to be like the tree that is described in Psalm 1, which says,
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in that law he doth meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psalm 1:1-3
That should be all of our goals, to be well-rooted by streams of water — living water — which is another name that Jesus applied to himself. He is the Living Water, and we want our roots to go deep into Him.
Then we come to…
U = Understand your purpose.
Psalm 139:13 tells us that God knit us together in our mother’s wombs, and He did so with intentionality and with purpose. I just love that fact.
If you’ve ever read the Westminster Catechism (and a catechism is just a series of question and answers that is used to teach younger children doctrines of the faith), the very first question in the Westminster Catechism is, ”What is the divine end of man?”
And the answer is, ”Man’s divine end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” That is the purpose that underlines all other purposes in our life, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
You may feel a specific calling in addition to this. For instance, by age 2 or 3, my husband knew he wanted to be a physician, and he never wavered from that goal. And he pursued it and eventually achieved it.
And I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be I stay-at-home mom with a lot of children and homeschool them. And God was so good to grant that desire of both of our hearts, for both my husband and me.
But sometimes the deepest desires of our heart are not granted. I have several daughters whowould love to be married but are not yet married. They haven’t met the right guy, and they’ve had to go to a Plan B for their life.
And it is not as fulfilling as they imagine marriage and motherhood would be. But one of them was telling me just a couple of weeks ago that she realizes that she doesn’t have to be living her dream to be able to fulfill her purpose of glorifying God. That she can glorify God right where she is today.
Glorifying God is not something we put off doing until our dreams come true’something that we need to be doing in the process, in the in between time, as we’re waiting, we can glorify God – and that is his will for all of us.
1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us,
”Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God,”
1 Corinthians 10:31
So undergirding whatever other purpose or calling you feel God has put on your life, that giving glory and honor to Him and everything is going to take precedence and can be fulfilled whether your hopes ever materialize or not.
Then next comes…
T = Talk to God Daily.
1 Thessalonians 5:17, which I’ve quoted many times before on this podcast, but it’s such a short and simple verse, but sometimes we find it hard to apply: “Pray without ceasing.”
And that is what prayer is. It’s just talking to God.
Philippians 4:6 tells us,
“Be anxious for nothing but in every everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.”
Philippians 4:6
One of the moms was sharing at the retreat a very pivotal moment when she had done something to upset her mother and realized that she had done wrong. And so — she she was very young, maybe 7 or 8 years old — she drew her mother a picture and went to her mother and asked for forgiveness.
And she was really just longing to be embraced by her mother and forgiven. But her mother was very dismissive of her efforts to restore that relationship, which was very sad. But God had given this friend the grace to forgive her mother and extend grace toward her. And she now, as an adult, has a great relationship with the mom, which is not always the case.
Sometimes some little thing that happens in the past just becomes a seed of bitterness. It springs up and creates this wall of thorns between you and the other person. And that’s so dangerous.
But thankfully that didn’t happen with her. She was able to recognize, ”My mom was probably stressed out. I was probably working on her last nerve.” And, you know, she realized her mom was human and was going to make mistakes and needed to be forgiven just like she needs to be forgiven.
But I think it’s important to remember that God is not going to do that to us. He’s not going to be dismissive. When we come to Him in prayer, He listens, and He always stands ready to forgive. And He desires that relationship to be restored even more than we do.
James 4. 8 tells us,
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
James 4:8
So do everything you can to keep those lines of communication open between yourself and God by praying and talking to Him daily.
Then that last point is,
H = Hold fast to your hope.
This refers to one of my favorite passages in scripture. When I was in high school, I did a lot of artwork. And on almost every piece of artwork that you can find from that time in my life, you’ll see my name signed with this verse underneath it, which is Hebrews 10:23-25. And it says,
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:23-25
Which was what this whole mother -daughter retreat was all about, was to encourage one another to love and good deeds and to build those relationships at home with our daughters, which is really great, but also to encourage us to hold fast to our hope and to cling to Jesus.
When I was pregnant with my third child, I started having recurrent nightmares. And at least two or three times a month, I would dream that that new little baby drowned. Every time it was in some different body of water, maybe the fountain at church or the bathtub or a swimming pool or the lake or a paint bucket out in our backyard. It was just constant.
And every time I dreamed it, I would wake up sobbing and my sobs would wake up my husband. And he’d reach over and pat me and reassure me. Jennifer, I don’t really think that this is even about the baby drowning. I really think it is about your feeling inadequate to take care of a third baby — which probably hit the nail on the head.
But when those dreams persisted even after the baby was born, I was reluctant to even let that child take a bath without first putting a lifejacket on him. I was so hyper-vigilant over him — and who can tell but that God sent me those dreams to make sure that I was hyper-vigilant, because this child was very, very quiet, and he was into everything, and was quite a climber also!
But eventually he did get proficient enough at swimming that we were able to take off the life jackets and take off the water wings and let him go it alone. And by the time he was 16 or 17, he was doing triathlons and swimming a mile out into open water and was unstoppable.
But boy, as a child I didn’t see that day coming very quickly. Yet that’s what as parents we want for our children.
We want for them to grow up to responsible and independent adults.
We want them to need us less and less.
We’re trying from the very beginning to work ourselves out of the job by teaching them everything they need to know to survive in this world as adults.
And I think it is interesting that our goal for our children and the mark of maturity for our children is actually just opposite God’s goal for us and the mark of maturity for us. Because when we come to Christ, we may not recognize at that point, so early on in our relationship with Him, how utterly dependent we are on the Lord for everything.
But the more and more we mature in our faith, the more we see how we have to rely on Him for everything. He supplies all of our needs.
And while our goal for our children is for them to become independent of us, I think God’s goal for us is to recognize more and more how utterly dependent we are upon Him, and to hold fast to Him through thick and thin, through good times and bad, to be able to trust Him and affirm His goodness and know that He is there with us, walking every step of the way, through every trial. I think that that is very important.
And then the last thing I want to do in discussing this concept of standing in the truth is to read Ephesians 6:10 through 18, because it ties in so beautifully with each of these five points.
It says,
”Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand [which of course was the theme of our retreat, standing in the truth].
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. [There’s that word again.]
“And having on the breastplate of righteousness. [And, by the way, Isaiah 64:6 tells us our own righteousness is as filthy rags, but when we put our faith in God and trust in Jesus, His perfect righteousness is imputed to us.]
”And having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace [that’s in order to make Christ known or to glorify him, which is part of understanding your purpose].
“Above all, taking the shield of faith [there you have hold fast to your hope. You don’t want to drop that shield in battle] ,wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
“And take the helmet of salvation [that’s my first point: trust in Jesus] and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. [So read it faithfully.]
”Praying Always [talk to God daily] with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance [which again speaks to holding fast to your hope] and supplications for the saints [which again talks about praying].”
So my prayer for you is that you will be able to first know the truth and put your faith completely in God. Not in your own works, not in any false God, but in Jesus Christ who was wholly God, wholly man, who died for our sin, was buried, resurrected and reigns in heaven today.
And that you will read His Word and understand your purpose, that you’ll talk to Him daily and hold fast to the hope that is within you.
Thanks so much for listening today. I’ll talk with you again next week.
The Word of God is full of wisdom for every facet of life, but we’ve found it especially helpful in building a happy, healthy marriage. For a fascinating look at how science has confirmed the superiority of God’s design, check out my book Love Your Husband/Love Yourself.
