Believe Manifesto

Where have I been friends?!

I have been through some hard weeks, if I am honest. My goal is to ALWAYS put my relationships with God and Family first, and so over the last few weeks they have needed more time than I expected. I put them first because I know they are the best YES for my life in this season. (If you haven’t already, go read: The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst–it is a must for all people who have a hard time saying NO.)

Last night, I couldn’t sleep, and I was up late thinking about all of the hard and un-expected things I have faced over the past few weeks and one thought kept coming into my mind: seek truth. At first I started doing the normal shenanigans like: what does that mean?! what is God telling me?! Then I slowed down and thought, “Literally Sarah, seek truth.”

So here is what that looked like. I looked up “truth” in my NIV bible and read some very profound verses that spoke to me. This is not EVERY occurrence of the word, but last night these words did amazing things for my heart and spirit. So, I thought–maybe my people need this truth. So here we are, this is the truth my soul was seeking last night…not surprisingly most of this is in the New Testament and very applicable.

“I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.” (Isaiah 45:19)

“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgement in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this, declares the Lord” (Zechariah 8:16-17)

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”         (John 8:32)

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way’ and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”   (John 14:6-7)

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father–the Spirit of the truth who goes out from the Father– he will testify about me.” (John 15:26)

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13)

“What is truth? retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”                 (John 18:38-39)

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”  (Romans 1:18)

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corin 13:6-7)

“For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”    (2 Corin 13:8)

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” (Ephesians 4:15)

“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breast-plate of righteousness in place.” (Ephesians 6:11-14)

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man-kind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle — I am telling the truth, I am not lying — and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.” (1 Timothy 2:3-7)

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?”    (Hebrews 10:26-29)

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.”  (1 Peter 1:22)

“Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.” (2 Peter 2:2)

“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:6-9)

I think it best to read these, pray over them and get full context by reading the verses that surround them. But friends, it doesn’t get more true than that. There is not one thing that will help us in our walk better than truth. It can show us grace, lift our spirits, set us on a new, different, better path. Truth is a GAME CHANGER. I hope that these verses spoke to you as they did to me.