Truth

Have you read your newsfeed today? Truth has stumbled in the public square again. Right is called wrong, and wrong is called right. We live in a crazy, confused, dark world. Know why? The world is populated by desperately sick people. That’s why Jesus came.

While there is a real spiritual battle going on in the air that we can’t see, there is a real spiritual battle on the ground that we certainly experience. Scripture reminds us that our primary fight is not against flesh and blood. We battle in a hand-to-hand engagement against our adversary, the devil.

When there is an opening in our battle gear, the enemy aims for that vulnerable spot. After Eve’s weak response to Satan’s question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1), he went from a seemingly innocent question to an attack on God’s integrity.

A small error makes a big difference. Check this out. If you started walking on a straight path toward a destination and were one degree off course when you started, after one hundred yards, you would end up 5.2 feet from your destination. Not that big of a deal, right? However, in that same scenario, you’d be off by 92.2 feet after a mile. If you were driving in a straight line from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and started just one degree off, you’d miss the nation’s capital by 42.6 miles. One more…in a rocket going to the moon, one degree off at blastoff would cause you to miss the moon by 4,169 miles. A small error makes a big difference. We see that in the first temptation.

It all started in the Garden. In that perfect sinless environment, Satan came to Adam and Eve. There in the Garden, the deceiver twisted the truth and convinced Adam and Eve that God was holding out on them. They bought the lie. When God confronted Eve and asked, “What is this that you have done?” she replied, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13). Through the deceiver, sin and death entered humanity. That’s why Jesus says Satan is a murderer and a liar “from the beginning.”

Fear hits us from all angles. We desire to make a difference and fear living a life that doesn’t count. We need control and fear surrendering to God. We fear insignificance and uncertainty. The fear of failure drives us to make rash decisions or causes us to fear deciding at all. And then there is the final enemy—we fear dying. We battle fear, but things change when we realize the battle is too big for us. We are surrounded, outnumbered, outgunned. The battle against fear will be won, at the end of the day, by coming to grips with this truth: The battle belongs to the Lord. That’s what King David learned early in his life.

The Creator has you on his mind. What an amazing truth! In today’s psalm, we see that God is magnificent and filled with splendor. He is exalted above all creation. And he has you on his mind. That’s a great promise.

Can you imagine what would be going through your mind if you knew those persecuting the church would soon arrive in your city? No doubt your heart and mind would be filled with anxiety. You would be fearful for yourself, but even more so for your spouse and children. So, Peter wrote two letters to help those facing difficult times to focus their minds on wholesome (pure, unsullied, and sincere) thoughts.

Have you ever heard the adage about the dog and the pig? The saying about the dog is from the proverbs. The one about the pig is from an unknown source. But Peter puts them together to make a graphic point.