You may remember the picture from the prior post depicting fully eroded ground surrounding totally green trees, entitled, “Why Are They Still So Green?”
In that post, I stated,
“Steadfastness is a Condition that puts us in a Position to stand in a Posture, filling us with strong Purpose.”
Have you noticed the condition of our interior worlds makes a vast impact on our perspective toward our exterior worlds? When you gaze deeply within yourself, do words like alive and thriving come to mind, or does your heart paint a picture of erosion and drought?
Here’s the second question: When you look into yourself, what kind of lens are you peering through?
Is your lens clouded by others’ perspectives? Past experiences? Unpleasant circumstances? Or is your lens clarified by truth, clearly displaying the reality of what’s in your heart?
These are questions we can answer when we look within our true selves and lay our thoughts against the template of truth in God’s Word that for thousands of people, over thousands of years, has proven sure, trustworthy and life-giving.
It’s highly important to consistently evaluate ourselves, because we really are what we think. What we think determines what we do, and what we do typically produces long-term effects.
This is what we see the ancient character, David, doing with his thoughts when we read Psalm 15 in the Bible. He asks, “Who are those who daily live in your presence?” In this question, David is asking God to lay out a model, a template, of the kind of person who confidently shares friendship with God hImself. In other words, what are God’s expectations for His friends?
Wow! That seems like a risky question when we consider him as the God of the Universe, and we are merely his creation.
How could David have been so comfortable having this kind of conversation with the Most High God?
Well, all his life, David had been having conversations like this with God, and God had proven to be a trustworthy friend, full of love, ready to chat whenever David asked for understanding. That’s what a good friend does…that’s who God is…full of love and ready to share Himself with any of us who ask Him or pursue HIm.
In this exchange, God gives David what he’s asking for: a model of three clear characteristics of the person who can live with God day in and day out:
- Walks with integrity (involves the mind – head). It’s your character – how you think about life.
- Works righteousness (involves your body – hands). It’s your actions – what you do in life.
- Speaks truth in his heart (involves your spirit – heart). It’s your motives – who you are in life.
Although this is not an exhaustive list, it does cover the entire person. This is wholehearted living—body, mind, spirit. This is holistic, from the exterior of your body to your very core of your heart.
Think about INTEGRITY. Integrity involves your character, the way you think, because how you think about life determines the way you live. We could say integrity originates in the MIND.
Which leads into the things you do: right vs. wrong. The person who fully loves God chooses what is right. Doing the right thing involves your BODY. Your actions would be symbolized in the HANDS…the choices you make, what you do in life.
And both integrity and righteousness stem from your very core, your spirit, your HEART. When we get down to the heart of the matter, our true motives are openly revealed.
Now Number 3: it just jumped off the page when I read it.
The person who wholeheartedly lives God’s Way “speaks truth in his or her heart”.
Have you ever known someone who says all the right things, but the things they do contradict the words they say? Or, have you ever realized you were living your life out of a false perception, that what you thought about yourself was, in truth, a lie?
When there is inconsistency between character and actions and motives, there is typically a lack of truth in the mix somewhere.
Conventional wisdom will regularly advise us: “Follow Your Heart”. They say this is how you’ll know when you’re moving in the right direction—your heart will tell you based on how you feel.
Let me ask you: Is your heart trustworthy enough to blatantly follow? Do you ever have a change of heart? As you move through your day, does your heart remain steady or do you find it changing according to how you feel, based upon what happens along the way?
I find when I “follow my heart” I’m going to be following my emotions, making emotional decisions because I feel sad or glad or mad or scared or ecstatic…based on whatever I perceive in my current situation.
I discover my emotions change when my circumstances change, or when I learn additional facts, or when the sun goes behind a cloud!
How can we move through the influence of our emotions to find the actual truth?
How can we take action and make choices that are life-giving and stable, rather than shaky, even destructive?
In the prior post, we looked at the value of self-talk, the inner voice which provides a running verbal monologue of thoughts while we are conscious. We all have that inner voice, and scripture speaks volumes about the need to control our thoughts and bring them around to truth, rather than allowing our thoughts to control us.
I’m talking about intentional thinking and we can take many pro-tips from David’s healthy conversations with God, expressing all kinds of emotions, honestly asking God to help him evaluate his own thought patterns.
David was a master at expressing his true feelings and wrestling with them until he came to the knowledge of the Truth—where his thoughts would match up with the thought patterns of God. David would talk to God and reason within himself until he came to the full knowledge of the Truth.
How did he know for sure?
I see 2 things consistent in David’s self-talk. These are the methods David employed to “speak truth in his heart”.
- David had searched out the TRUTH. We must KNOW the Truth. Early on, God taught people how to live His way. When Jesus came to earth, He taught people even more about God and His way of living. Scripture speaks truth about life. Consequently, reading and following scripture equips us with the true knowledge of how to live our best lives.
- David evaluated his thinking by laying it up against TRUTH. We must EVALUATE the Truth in our own minds. How do we know what we’re thinking is the Truth? Lay it against the template of the Word of God. Scripture is our pattern for wholehearted living.
- Ask, “Does this line of thinking match up with scripture? Is there any contradiction in my conclusions to what God’s Word says?
- Ask, “What do I know to be true about God in this situation?”
When David’s feelings did not match up with the Truth about God’s way of thinking, he questioned, probed, investigated…put his whole self into finding the answer that matched up with what God states in His Word.
Then David would give his entire mind—his whole heart—over to God so God could do His transforming work in David.
In this place, David would see the truth about his shadow self and his God-transformed self. His whole-hearted way of thinking would lead him to make a proper evaluation of his daily life, keeping him in step with God along the way.
The end result is a person who “speaks truth in his or her heart”, wholehearted devotion to God, who truly loves us
What’s the Pay-Off?
Is it really all that necessary to make Truth your default?
Go back to David’s Psalm 15, verse 5. There’s a definite pay-off for the person who “speaks truth in his or her heart”:
The one “who does these things will never be shaken.”
In all of scripture, this is a repeated promise in multiple passages:
- Ps. 19:13 – you will be blameless
- 2 Peter 1:10 – you will never stumble
- Jude 24, 25 – you will confidently stand before Christ, with great joy
- Ps. 125:1 – you cannot be moved = eternal security
The Bible calls this kind of living Steadfastness — Steady in Every Way!
A heart synced with God is totally and completely steadfast. “He who does these things will never be shaken.” Ps. 15:5
Do you have a minute right now to engage in a little self-talk? Any time is a good time to ask God to help you to speak truth in your heart. You might begin to ponder with questions like these:
How would you describe the condition of your heart when you come to God: Steadfast or Shaky?
When it comes to living in the presence of God, do you consider yourself a temporary guest or a permanent resident?
Is there anything in your heart that keeps you from looking square into the face of God, accepting His unbridled love for you?
What do you wish you knew about God that is not yet solidified in your heart?
As you ask these questions, spend some time reasoning in your mind. Open up your Bible and ask God to lead you to a place where He can speak truth to you. If you don’t know where to start, try the book of John. Take the time to listen to and consider the truth you read.
If you need a Guide On The Side, phone a friend who knows God, or get in touch with me in the comments below. Speaking truth in your heart will change your life—every time! And when it’s truth from God who loves you, it’s always life-giving.
And who doesn’t want a better life?
I love this! “In the beginning was the Word….”
A wise woman(wink wink) once told me, that for me to be able to detect false in this world, I had to know the Truth. Then, it would be possible to recognize what is false.
When I hear people that are so conflicted or don’t know which way to turn, I just want to say, oh honey, the answer is right here. I grew up in the church, and I still have to go back to the Word.
Living is hard. Stumbling blocks are thrown in the way all the time.
I am so thankful that I have a very good resource to read and people in my life to set me straight.
That same ‘wise woman’ also said, “God knows the heart.”
I’m also thankful that I know God and He knows me. It’s a heart thing!
In my heart, I know for a fact that He will tell me the truth if I ask for it.
Equipped with that can allow me to become a hurdler in this world.
And of course, I trip and fall from time to time, but like a person that has lived a pretty heathy life, the recovery is so much easier!
Well said, Candy! I love your picture of being a hurdler. Thank you for the reminder: even when we trip and fall, we recover more easily when equipped with truth. Truth is powerful and life lived in truth is empowering. I see you living strong, My Friend!