Focus

Prepare yourself to discern what is and what is not of God today. Still yourself so you can hear how God is calling you.

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Read

Ephesians 4:25-5:2 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

 

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Reflect

Nowadays it seems as if truth is a casualty of the war to win (by ensuring someone else loses), the war to be right (despite the facts), the war to gain power over others. When people confess to me that they “just get so angry” watching the news, I ask them why they don’t just turn it off. Lies, half-truths, obfuscation, and “spin” make us angry because we were made for something better. We were made to see, hear, know, and speak the truth. When we accept Christ as savior we begin to make him lord of our lives as well, which means the Holy Spirit regenerates us into new persons in Christ. As new persons we “put away falsehood”, “speak the truth”, and “put away” slander and malice toward others. Or, at least, we try to. Thankfully, God never gives up on us, continues trying to help us do better, and keeps calling us to live in love and be tenderhearted. So why do we still sometimes lie? Novelist Tad Williams says, “We tell lies when we are afraid… afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us.”

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Pray

Thank you, God, for continually calling me toward truth. Forgive me when I embrace falsehood out of fear. Strengthen me today to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving, speaking only the truth.

Go with God!