2-14-21 Truthbombs

Quote: “If you want to give truth but you can’t receive truth from others, you aren’t ready to give it.”

Truth.  This is my word of the year for 2021.  If God had given it to me just so I would do better at telling the truth, that would be easy!  But that is not even close to why God gave it to me.  It’s February, I’ve had this word on my heart now for almost 2 months, and I’m still struggling!  I’ll explain more about that later.

But let’s chat about this quote and the giving and receiving of advice.  We humans sure love sharing wisdom and advice with other people, especially in areas that we’ve struggled in ourselves.  We feel like we’ve earned our stripes.  We have lots of love to give and sometimes that comes in the form of words of encouragement, knowledge, or wisdom.

But if we are giving truthbombs out to others, we’ve got to be willing to receive some back.  We can’t just dish it out.  It goes both ways.  I love the picture of this little itty bitty gold fish with  a shark’s tale to illustrate this quote.  We can’t be big and bold and give our two cents…but then not be willing to take other’s words into consideration.

I’d love to share with you a little bit of advice that I was recently given by a friend.  We were walking and talking one day and she began asking questions to clarify what the real problem was behind a struggle I was having.  She has the spiritual gifts of both wisdom and discernment and so I totally saw where she was going with her line of questioning.  She was basically asking me what the real truth was in my situation.

The message God gave me through her was loud and clear.  I needed to start asking him what the truth is in every situation.  In every conversation.  In every relationship.  In every accomplishment.  In every problem.  What is the truth?  What is he trying to teach me?  What is the lesson here?  Asking these kinds of questions is going to bring me closer to him, closer to his heartbeat, and closer to hear his voice.  I’m not a cuddly and close kinda girl.  Yet I know that’s what my Father wants and if that’s what it takes to find answers, peace, and hope – then I’ve got to do it.  I’ve got to do everything in my might to get closer to him.  And that means having conversations back-and-forth – which means asking him what his plan is for every single area of my life.  It’s going all in.

In John 8:32-33 Jesus was talking and he says, “…If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  If I’m open to hearing from God through messages from him, then I need to be ready to hear messages from him through other people.  He has so much to say to us and sometimes, it’s not going to come when you are reading the Bible or listening to a message in church or singing your fave Christian song.  It might come from a friend who makes you look at your word of the year differently.  What is the truth Danielle?  Her words continue to ring in my ear.  But the Bible says in John that if we seek the truth, it will set us FREE!  I don’t know about you but just reading or saying the word freedom makes me feel good inside.  I want to be free from pain.  And if Jesus says the truth will set me free, then I need to take my friend’s advice and ask God what the truth is in every situation.

So how has this line of questioning been going with me and my Father?  Not so good.  Because if I’m being honest, I don’t take the time to stop and ask him that all the time.  I know when I do it’s aMaZiNg yet I have to be disciplined enough to ask him what the truth is in this situation and that situation and everything in between.

Together my wise friend helped me develop a line of questions to ask God to keep the conversation going.  So this is what it sounds like when I’m in the messy middle of a problem or situation – basically anytime I’m needing a moment of clarity.  And as my pastor has always taught me, always back it up by Scripture, so you will notice Scripture references next to my questions that you can look up later.  So here’s the questions I ask myself:

• Did I give it to God & pray on it yet? (2 Chronicles 20:15)
• What does God say is the TRUTH in this situation? (Ephesians 6:14a & James 4:17)
• Am I sure my thoughts/decisions are based on God’s will for me because I listened to Him or is it because of peer/society pressure or taking the easiest path? (Proverbs 3:5-6 & Matthew 7:13-14)
• Am I getting upset about the decision/choice because of how it makes me look/feel etc… or am I truly upset & do not feel it is the correct decision/choice? (Galatians 1:10)

I have given my friend lots of advice over the last couple of years.  I’ve dished out all sorts of little pearls that I hope have helped her along her journey.  But what if I wouldn’t have been willing to receive back the advice she gave me?  It wasn’t fun to follow her advice and really dig in and examine my thoughts and actions. I had to choose to listen to her and then wrestle it out on my own.  I had to be open to hear.  Look at our anatomy.  Two ears, one mouth.  I believe there is definitely a reason for this!  I learned a valuable lesson in this whole process.

If I can’t take wise counsel from others, then I better not be giving any.