The God-Shaped HeartSample

The Truth of Who God Is

Imagine crossing the street and as you step into the crosswalk a truck comes barreling right toward you. What emotion do you experience? Fear! 

Now imagine you are out with your three-year-old child. You get distracted and look up and see your child in the street with a truck barreling toward him. There is just enough time if you act right now to shove your child out of the way, but if you do, you will get hit. What do you do? You shove your child out of the way. And as you see your child hit the grass on the other side and know he or she is safe, what emotion do you experience? Relief and joy—wait a minute, you are getting hit by a truck! Notice, in both circumstances you are getting hit by a truck. In the first there is only fear. In the second, your love has cast out your fear! 

Love, originating in God, manifested fully in Christ, and infused into our hearts by the indwelling Spirit is the only power to free us from fear and selfishness. But it all starts with the truth about who God is. The breach in love began with lies about God, and the entire healing cascade hinges on embracing the truth about God! While lies believed break the circle of love and trust, truth believed destroys lies and wins trust. Restored trust opens the heart and God pours his love into our hearts. Trust overcome fear and result in acts of righteousness, acts of service, acts of giving, and acts of love. Finally, acts of righteousness result in growing in godliness and witnessing God’s kingdom—a healing progression. 

But it all starts with coming back to the truth about God! This is the only way to free us, transform our hearts, and prepare us to meet Jesus!

Truth prevails over lies, and love prevails over fear and selfishness. If we want to prevail in this war, we must come back to an accurate understanding of God’s character and government—that is, his methods and design for reality. The truth of who he is and how he works is power, experiencing God’s love is power, and partaking of the divine nature is power—the power to live in harmony with God! 

How have your thoughts about God changed through this devotional? How are those thoughts influencing your heart?