And The Truth Will Set You Free

Two weeks ago I attended the Women of Faith Amazing Freedom conference. It was the best one I've been to yet. One of the key concepts brought up at the conference was the idea that freedom comes when you trust what you know to be true about God even when the circumstances of your life make it appear not to be true.

The quintessential example of this being the age old "problem of evil." How can God be both loving and powerful when evil, awful, absolutely horrid circumstances occur to people around the world every day? Innocent children are abused, abandoned, neglected. Does God love them but lack the power to help them? Circumstances, say that must be true or that He has the power to help them but chooses not to because He doesn't love them. Evil circumstances tempt us to say that God must be EITHER loving or powerful. He can't be both or He would intervene and end the evil circumstances. The Bible says circumstances are deceptive. The Bible tells us unequivocally who God is...

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. - 1 John 4:16

To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. - Isaiah 40:25-26

The Bible tells us what is true - God is both loving and powerful. We are called to know that is true even when circumstances tempt us to believe something else is true.

It occurs to me that the original sin in the Garden of Eden was exactly this choice. Adam and Eve walked in the Garden with God. They knew God face to face. Then they were faced with a circumstance in which they had to choose what they knew to be true about God over what appeared to be true at that particular moment.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” - Genesis 2:16-17

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. - Genesis 3:4-6

Eve looked at the circumstances - seeing that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, etc. and made a decision based on the circumstances - rather, than on what she knew to be true about God.

Contrast that with Jesus's response when faced with circumstances:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'." - Matthew 4:1-4

Knowing God, memorizing Scripture, Bible study, praying etc. are vital to our lives because they allow us to rise above circumstances and choose to follow what we KNOW to be true about God rather than what circumstances make appear to be true.

When we know God so well that we automatically respond with what we know to be true regardless of circumstances, we begin to find true freedom.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. - John 8:32