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Closing the Gap 5.9.18

Week 18 “Speak Truth to One Another”

Day 3

Pray:

Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Reflect:

Satan is the father of lies; Jesus is the truth. Lying destroys relationships; truth builds them up. Our physical bodies require ongoing communication to function in full health.  For instance, some diseases or injuries impair the brain’s ability to communicate accurately with other parts of the body. When your physical body’s ability to communicate “truthfully” breaks down because of some neurological problem, then your body begins to fall into a state of disease and disintegration.  Truthful and accurate information is essential to both physical and relational health. Why do people not speak truthfully to one another since it is so important? Largely because they believe that deception, or less than the full truth, will somehow lead to better outcomes. They believe it will be better for them in some self-protective way. In some cases, people believe lying will benefit others as they “protect” them from the truth. Speaking truthfully is not always telling people what you could tell them, but it is always telling people what you should tell them. How do you know what to tell them?  The starting point is to understand the purposes of telling people anything.  We are to speak to others for their benefit, not for our own. It doesn’t mean we don’t benefit from these conversations.  It means that in our speech, as in our actions, we are to put the interests of others ahead of our own. How would it change your conversations if your primary objective were to build others up according to “their” needs?  Move away from lies and move resolutely towards the truth. If you have practiced self-protective and deceitful speech for a long time, it may take some time to change, but you can. You will need to pray about, plan for, and practice truth-telling.  God will help you, but you must decide and move into that decision daily. Pray now, plan now, and then move out today and practice.

Pray:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)

Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.

 

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