Truth—or Dare

When people invent their own truths and live by them, almost always they expect others to conform—chaos and conflict are guaranteed to follow. Then comes the finger-pointing: radical movements, inept and hypocritical politicians and worse. But as believers, we know where we stand—we stand on God’s truth. Or do we?

Scripture tells us God’s standard of evil and good, and it’s easy to say we agree with it. But it’s also true that we manage to invent and rationalize ways to live by our own standards while still praising His. The truth is, our own flesh is as devious and rotten as the people we criticize as lawless evildoers.

Before our righteous indignation erupts today at the evil infesting the world, take a moment to pray with King David, who so wisely understood the necessary state of the human heart—lest we, too, hate like haters hate, and by the same standards—our own.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

—King David, Psalm 139: 23-24