Heart Tracks - Stop Lying

"Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool." Isaiah 1:18...."When we try to bury our problems, we bury them alive." Ruth Graham...."The level of honesty we have with God about our pain reflects the level of trust we have in Him." Sheila Walsh

Back in my Bible College days, I had a wonderful teacher named Dr. Thomas C. Mitchell. He said so many things that lodged in my memory, but one of the best was also one of the simplest. He said, in relation to our walk with the Father, "Stop lying to God!" It stuck because I realized that lying is exactly what we often do with Him. Not the conscious, pre-planned outright lie, though some may certainly do so, but the subtle denial of what is really the truth. We have problems, conflicts, unresolved anger, bitterness, addictions, and on an on, and we're not honest with Him about any of it. We bury them, but as Graham says, we bury them alive. And they just won't stay buried. They find a way to claw to the surface, and show up in so many destructive ways.

Someone said that unresolved anger may be the biggest problem facing the average believer today. We're angry about many things. Angry at our parents, siblings, friends, the church.....the Father Himself. The thing of it is, as Christians, we're not supposed to be angry, or at least, not stay so. We're commanded to love and forgive, except doing so can be difficult. There can be so many deeply hidden issues. Issues that need to be talked out, reasoned out. Not just with other people, but with God Himself. After all, the things that we're angry about could have been prevented by Him, right? We can't bring ourselves to admit it, since we're not supposed to be angry with Him, but oftentimes, we're more angry with God than anyone else.

What happens in these situations is that we become human time bombs. At some point, in some way, we're going to explode, and when we do, the destruction will be massive. We see the truth of that in every direction we look. Devastated lives, marriages, families, and churches. We try to bury these things, but they just won't stay buried. Pain, anger, unhealed wounds, they will always wreak havoc unless they're brought out into the open. Unless they're brought out and into the light of Jesus Christ.

After many years of ministry, I've observed that people, myself included, will come to Jesus for so many things. Usually those things we could label as "bread and fishes." Things, results, that would be pleasing to us. We also eagerly come to Him for physical healing, or financial and material help. But as concerns the open spiritual and emotional wounds we carry, we hang back. We don't come. We don't because we don't really trust Him enough to surrender them all to Him. We hold them to ourselves, and they become a cancer to our souls. A cancer that eventually destroys us, and many around us. In all of it, He stands before us, always before us, and simply says, "Come.....let us reason together."

One translation of this verse says, "Come, let us settle this." Might it not be time, past time, that so many of us do just that? Isn't it time to "settle" with Him, the issues that have kept us from the fullness of His life and healing? Settling things with Him, and settling things with others around us. We can't always "settle" things with others. They may refuse, or they may be gone, but we can always settle things, everything, with Him. We simply need to come. Everything, and I mean everything, starts and finishes with that beautiful word from His heart and voice. Does He speak it to you? If so, can you also hear the words of my old professor, Dr. Mitchell. "Stop lying to God." Stop...Just simply come.

Blessings,
Pastor O