Tested and Approved: 21 Lessons for Life and MinistrySample

Day 4: Seek and Embrace What Is True

“Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth” (John 17:17 NLT).

Would you call yourself a learner? Do you think of yourself as a humble person? Can you receive correction with an open mind and heart? Or are you self-willed and stubborn? Would people describe you as someone who is “difficult to lead?" How do you handle coaching when someone is trying to help you improve? How you answer these questions will give you a fairly good understanding of your character—whether you will seek and embrace what is true or not.

Some people hide or deny the truth. Some run away and avoid it. They want positive encounters and fear those that are negative. Rather than confronting error and embracing truth, they will flee from it, only to do the hard work of confronting problems as a last resort. How do you respond to those dangerous relational encounters that arise in your life? How do you handle uncomfortable truth?

Consider the following three examples of individuals from the Bible. How did they respond to truth? Did they pursue and embrace it? Or did they run and hide from it? 

• King Solomon was a wise person. In fact, the Bible says he was the wisest person to have ever lived. What do wise people do? They embrace truth and live in the light of God’s Word. At the age of twelve, Solomon responded to God’s offer of a “blank check” by asking God to give him wisdom and a heart to know the difference between good and evil. Later in life, Solomon’s ungodly wives turned him and the kingdom away from the light of God’s Word, but the great successes he knew in life came from seeking and embracing God’s truth.
• Samson the judge was graciously given God’s favor. However, he didn’t seem to understand that none of us are permanently guaranteed favor or blessing regardless of our actions. If we ever stop seeking what is true and embracing it, then we will find ourselves yielding to foolish thoughts and actions with disastrous results. Samson is an example of a foolish person. Foolish people may be very bright and gifted, but they are difficult to lead. God gave him amazing strength. Samson was smart and creative. His strength made him dominant and influential, even over his Philistine enemies. As a judge, he brought about justice for the people of Israel, but at what cost? Samson’s attitudes and actions were foolish, and he was a relationally-difficult person. Foolish people resist input and deny the impact of their actions. Samson required strong correction from the Lord because he would not seek and embrace what was true. From Samson, we learn that painful is the path of foolishness, but brokenness can bring about restoration. Through our humility, God can fulfill His purposes in our lives regardless of our past foolishness (see Judges 13).
• Ahab is a biblical example of an evil person. An evil person wants their own way and resists truth by denying it and pointing fingers of blame through accusation, resistance, and stonewalling. These are qualities that characterized Ahab’s life. He did not seek God but defaulted to his own desires and resisted, rather than embraced, truth. The lesson from Ahab’s life is simple: bad company will turn our seeking into the pursuit of our selfish desires and keep us from embracing truth from any source (see 1 Kings 16:30).

Consider: Are you seeking truth in every area of your life? How do you seek to know God’s will and do it?

Heavenly Father, mold me and develop me more into the image and character of Jesus. Give me courage to confront the difficult issues and conflicts I face every day. In Jesus’s name, Amen.