There’s a joke told among musicians and performers who aspired to the stage of the world renown venue Carnegie Hall:
“ How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, Practice, Practice.”
This is no joke when we consider how we learn to speak Truth to lies.
We must know what the Truth is. And then we practice, practice, practice.
In today’s entry in 100 Days to Brave, Annie recounts Jesus’ 40 Days in the wilderness and the temptations by the enemy. You may know this portion of scripture: Jesus is tempted three different times by Satan and in each temptation, of body, of power and of worship, Jesus speaks Truth to the lies presented Him.
Simple enough right?
Know what the Truth is. Speak Truth to the lies we hear whispered in our ears. Repeat.
But wait! How do we know the Truth?
This reminds me of what I was doing last weekend. Encouraging a group of women to search the scriptures to know if what they heard me saying to them was true. Like the people of Berea who were commended by Dr. Luke in Acts 17, we are to be “Berean” in the way we handle God’s Word. When Paul had to flee Thessalonica, he, Timothy and Silas came to the town of Berea and began teaching in the synagogue. The people of Berea began searching the scriptures to see if what they heard was True.
As Christ-followers it is our personal responsibility to know what scripture says. There are any number of teachers running around saying partial truths and claiming it is all truth. How do we know who to believe?
Search the scriptures.
Where do you start? What tools are most helpful? What voices do you listen to? Isn’t there someone who can do all the work for me, so I can just do the things I want to do? What difference does it make anyway?
You may ask any of those questions. I’ve asked all of them at least one time in my faith walk. Asking questions is one of the best ways to learn! If someone tells you to stop asking questions, I’ll just say that person is either annoyed that you’re asking questions, or they’re trying to control you. Sorry that they’re annoyed. Don’t stop asking questions!
In this post-modern era, there are many people who choose to believe many different things about the Bible. I’m not a Bible scholar. I’m a Christ-follower who wants to learn from Jesus. For me to learn from Jesus, I need to read the Bible. So I do. A little every day. I read it a lot when I’m studying and preparing to encourage women from the Word.
A good place to start is to read the recount of Jesus’ life and ministry found in one of the first four books in what is called the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the names of the gospels. Pick one and start reading a little every day.
If you use your smart phone, YouVersion is an app that has many versions of the Bible and also has a lot of Bible reading plans if that is something you’d like to do.
this is the image you’ll find in your App Store
What tools are the best ones out there? I now use online resources to study. I used to have physical copies of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, and a copy of Nelson’s Bible Dictionary, but when we moved I donated a ton of books, hoping they would be a blessing to someone else. Blue Letter Bible is one of my favorite online resources for study and word origin references.
Bible reading and study isn’t something to offload. Here’s why: your soul is wired for connection with the One Who created you. Getting out into Creation and reading His Word are two tried and proven methods for learning what is True and being able to connect your soul with God.
How do all these things tie into being brave? Glad you asked!
It takes courage to realize you have a need. In this case the need is know the Truth.
It takes courage to take a step to meet that need.
It takes courage to carve out the time to meet that need.
It takes courage to guard that time as a priority.
It takes courage to ask the questions of God; what do I need today? How can I grow more Christ-like?
It takes courage to begin to hide God’s Word in your heart. (Scripture memory is work people)
It takes courage to speak God’s Word to the lies that we hear whispered in our thoughts by the enemy of our soul.
Those are seven ways that learning what Truth is has impact on being brave.
Annie wisely suggests we combat lies with Truth through prayer. I’ll leave you with hers:
God, tell me the truth of who I am. I’m listening. I want to be free from the lies—do that for me. Rescue me. Bring truth like a waterfall.
