All your words are true; All your righteous laws are eternal. (NIV)

When I was a little girl, my dad had false teeth. He used to twist his ear and stick his lower plate out of his mouth! Disgusting? Yes! But I was intrigued! My ears must’ve turned every color of the rainbow as I yanked on them and forcefully pushed my bottom jaw forward. Never did I have the desired effect. I had been tricked, duped, and I was crushed!

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Life can be like that. We might walk through our days believing in a lie, reaching for a life that can never be. Work will fulfill me, children will complete me, just one more drink will take the edge off. The world is full of these lies, and I must admit, at times, I’ve swallowed them.

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Hook. Line. Sinker.

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The problem with all these things is that they are lies that put us in bondage, the bondage of sin. When we put anything in life ahead of our relationship with God, we are skipping down the path of disaster. Just like that little girl of my childhood, it is a twisting of the ear that will never bring the desired effect.  

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Believing in God’s truth is not our knee jerk reaction. We tend to follow the material and physical that are before our eyes – the promotion with the big raise, the fancy car, the smokin’ hot guy or gal, health…they are all the fruit hanging in the Garden. They tell us the lie that God is withholding something good from us, something that will make life better, something we deserve. And in the process, these lies can cause us to walk away from the One who holds the perfect truth.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 8 verse 31, Jesus addresses the Jews saying, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (emphasis added). While coming to Jesus requires no work on our part, growth in him does. Notice in the verse that we must hold to his teaching to learn and know the truth. This requires faith. There is no way around it. Trusting and following Jesus are acts of faith that bear fruit, wisdom between right and wrong. We can now know the truth that sets us free!

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This is a spiritual freedom not a physical one. We, of course, are not slaves toiling in a field for a cruel master, deprived of our freedom to come and go as we wish. But, in reality, we are in spiritual slavery. Bound by our sins to one who wants to destroy us with lies: that we cannot be forgiven, we are too far gone, we have already been given our quota of chances. These whisperings in your ear are not from a God whose truth leads to freedom. In truth, all are welcome at the table (Rev. 3:20), all are already forgiven (Acts 13:38), no one is too far (Rom. 3:23-24), and there is an endless supply of chances (Romans 5:20)!

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So, are lies about who you are causing you to walk away from the truth that can only be found in Jesus? Are you believing the lies of our enemy about what success and fulfillment are, reaching for material things to find or build your identity? These things may bring a temporary illusion of freedom but will never set you free from the bondage of sin offered freely at the feet of Jesus. Call on him today, right now, in this moment. Ask him to show you who he’s made you to be. Ask him to show you the purpose and place he created for you in his Kingdom before the beginning of time (Rom. 8:28, 2 Tim. 1:9).

Yeshua, we rejoice today that we have been saved and called to a holy life – not because of what we have done but because of your own purpose and grace. This grace was given through Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life in abundance (2 Tim. 1:9-10). That’s the TRUTH of the gospel! Help us to reject lies from the world around us and replace those falsehoods with your truth that leads to freedom. Lead us into living freely daily, forming new habits and enjoying holy lives set apart for your purposes. We trust, by faith, that your words are true forever. Amen.