This series of articles is taken from lessons I presented at Faith Baptist Church in January, 2012
One of the most important, yet arguably
the most difficult habits to develop in life is the ability to live
according to the truth. In Philippians 4:8, the Apostle Paul
admonishes us to think on the things that are true. In another letter
he tells the Corinthian believers, “We cannot do anything against
the truth, but only for the truth.” (2 Cor. 13:8) So I take it that
the best way to live life is to live it in accordance with the truth.
In other words, there are realities of life – both physical and
spiritual life that govern how we live. When we live in ways that are
conflict with these truths, life will not go as well as when we are
living in accordance to the truth. Many times our biggest battles are
not out there in the physical world, but are conflicts and
frustrations that arise in our minds. These conflicts increase
interpersonal tensions, and give rise to worry and frustration.
One of the important principles that
the Bible teaches us is that our lives can be transformed and that
this transformation takes place by the renewing of our mind. (Romans
12:2) Paul, in his letters talks about being renewed in the spirit of
our minds (Eph 4:23) and being renewed in knowledge. (Col. 3:10) Such
transformation is something we should all want to see take place in
our lives. But this renewal takes place in our minds through the
things that we consciously think about. That's why Paul wrote that we
should set our minds on and think about those things that are true.
Renewing the mind comes from meditating
on God's word which is truth and then outside of Scripture forcing
ourselves to operate with the truth of the way life is. We need to
avoid living in a false world – a world that doesn't actually
exist. We need to avoid relying on principles that are false either
according to the Word of God or according to the nature of things.
Most of our problems of discouragement,
depression, frustration, worry, anxiety and even many interpersonal
relationships are a result of thinking things which are false.
What I plan to do in this article is
give you three principles along with a short explanation of each one.
Following that overview, I hope to examine a few areas of life in
order to show you how to apply these principles. Hopefully the
examples will be of help in applying these principles in other areas
of life that I may not cover here.
Here are the three principles I want us
to look at:
- Know the truth.
- Accept the truth – believe, accept and embrace it
- Act according to the truth – make decisions, adjust your attitude, act the part
...to be continued...
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