The Spirit of Truth part 5
There is only one memory verse in the Old Testament of the King James version of the Bible that has both the words "Spirit" and "Truth" in it. Psalm 31:5, "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth." And I've been waiting to use this verse until the end here. Because, if nothing else, it makes a strong connection between the Spirit and the truth. God of truth... into your hand I commit my spirit. You can trust someone who tells the truth--who, in this case, IS the truth. Its like I tell my kid all the time, "If you never lie to me, I'll always believe you." You might not always LIKE the truth, but at least you can trust it. And I've found that knowing is always better than not knowing. You can drive yourself crazy wondering. Making up scenarios in your head. Usually worst case scenarios. We drive ourselves crazy worrying about things that rarely even come to pass. Let me say what I think I'm trying to say another way: "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7). We can trust Him, because He has (and continues to) prove Himself trustworthy. We can have faith in Him because He has (and continues to) prove Himself faithful. We can cast our cares upon Him, because He cares for us. We can commit our spirit into His hand, because He is the God of truth. We know what He's about because He straight up told us. And, in some ways perhaps more importantly, He SHOWED us. Jesus spoke of the greatest expression of love that a man can have--laying His life down for His friends. And then He went to the cross and literally did just that. He put His money where His mouth was, if I can say it that way. He proved His love for us, by giving His love--His life--to us. Jesus is the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world. Sin is unbelief. He took it away by giving us something (someONE, Himself, love) to believe in. If you're a believer, by definition you can't unbelieve. You can't sin when you're born of God and His seed remains in you. Because that belief is so strong. Not "hope" in the sense that we "believe" in the hopes that something will happen. But faith in the sense that we know what happened (2000 years ago on an old rugged cross), and we know what it means for us today. We know God loves us because He proved it. When we were yet sinners (before the cross), He died for us. Because He loved us. He wanted us to have His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love... so He gave it to us. He doesn't make us earn it. Its a gift. He gave us everything we will ever need when He gave us Himself. His Spirit. The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. That's the rock, the foundation, that everything else is built on. That's the fundamental truth--the ultimate truth--of the universe. Everything else flows from there. The love that God put inside us coming out of us is how we experience the life we've been given. And it all comes from trusting Him. Knowing (and believing) the truth, and letting that truth we know set us free and make us free!