John 8:32, 36

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

In this passage, Jesus is talking to some Jewish people who were interested in becoming disciples. When he spoke of the truth setting them free, they were confused and a bit angry. Because they were Abraham’s descendants, God’s chosen people, they questioned why they needed freedom. What they didn’t realize was that they were slaves to sin, and Jesus came to set them free. They didn’t understand that their opinion/perception of themselves was keeping them in bondage. They depended on ancestry and obedience to the law of Moses for their hope. Jesus told them they were slaves of sin, not sons of God, and that only through Him could they find true spiritual freedom. This was TRUTH and it offended them!

In a world that proclaims “Speak your truth,” we must be a people that stands for THE TRUTH. Many people are offended by THE TRUTH! Just like the Jewish people in this passage, OUR truth is clouded by our experiences, our feelings, and our skewed opinions of ourselves. OUR truth is based on faulty information gathered over a lifetime from experiences of abuse, trauma, generational curses, lies spoken over us, faulty belief systems based upon trauma and lies of the enemy and more…

Here’s a breakdown of how OUR truth is created:

1. We have an experience.

2. Emotions rise up in us (based on our past experiences and insecurities).

3. We form an opinion.

4. This opinion now becomes “our truth.”

Do you see the problem here? We must invite Jesus into every experience and insert His Truth into the equation. We must apply THE TRUTH between steps 2 and 3! What does the Word say about this? If we don’t, we become slaves to sin, living in the bondage of our own truth.

What false truth is keeping you in bondage? There are so many examples I could give of the things that keep us in bondage, but this is just supposed to be a quick devotional! But I will say…

Sis, you do not have to keep acting a certain way because that is how your mother or father was. You don’t have to remain in a box of insecurity, afraid of everything, because of the abuse you have endured. You don’t have to accept the anxiety and confusion you feel in your brain just because someone spoke ADHD or OCD over you as a child. You don’t have to approve of someone else’s sinful lifestyle just because they are a loved one. You can be the hard stop in a line of generational curses and sins in your family. You do not have to be a victim of your past experiences or current situations.

Jesus has come to set us free from the curse and the bondage of sin…sins that we have committed ourselves as well as sins that have been committed against us. THE TRUTH is Jesus and what He’s done for us, Who He to us and Who we are to Him and in Him. That is where true freedom is found!

Thank you, Jesus, for coming to Earth and setting the record straight about the truth of who we are. Help us to develop the habit of inserting you into every situation that we encounter. Give us the grace to go back and reevaluate why we believe what we believe about ourselves, You, and about the world around us. Heal our hearts and our minds by the washing of your Word, THE TRUTH. Give us the courage to stand for THE TRUTH always in a society that tries to keep us silent.