the truth will set you free

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.  John 8:32, 36

This has been my prayer for myself and many others in the last year...that we would know the truth, and the truth would set us free.  We are held captive by lies.  They wrap chains of fear, insecurity, jealousy, anxiety, anger, selfishness, and strife around us, holding us in bondage.  Whoever first said the words "paralyzed by fear" really understood the power that we allow the devil to have over us when we believe his lies. 

We must be proactive seekers of THE Truth so that we recognize the lies for what they are when they come at us in their deceptive ways.  The Bible is filled with THE Truth...about who God is, about who we are, about our enemy the devil, and about anything that we might face.  It is imperative to our survival that we KNOW the truth, in our minds and in our hearts, because the devil is incessant in his barrage of lies against us.

My quest for truth has lead to a deep desire to be real...no facade, no pretending...just genuine Dawn with Jesus in me.  I spent much of my life trying to be the person I thought my friends and teachers and family wanted me to be...fitting in and not rocking the boat.  I was confused and frustrated and I failed because making people happy is an impossible goal. 

The truth can be hard to take when we have believed lies for so long.  Rejection might be a reality when we choose to live outside of the bondage that we have been in.  But I remind myself that Jesus promised us that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free.  More than anything, I want to follow Jesus and I want to be free.

God is calling us to be real.  To be the people that He created us to be.  To seek the truth.  To follow Him.  To know the truth and to be set free.