Just as tooth decay rots your teeth, truth decay will rot your soul.
My friends, Justin and Trisha Davis, have written an exceptional book, Beyond Ordinary. In the book, Justin details his struggles with being honest.
He says, “Dishonesty flows from three fears: fear of being exposed, fear of emotional pain, fear of not being loved.”
The only cure for the “fear of being exposed” is found in Jesus and His glorious Gospel. Before time ever began, Jesus made the decision – motivated by and saturated in love – to die for our sins. In one act of immense grace, He forgave all our sins: past, present, and future. Therefore, we can be honest with God because He knows us as well as all our sins. We don’t have to hide from the One who can heal us.
The only cure for the “fear of emotional pain” is found in Jesus and His glorious Gospel. We may be dishonest with people and ourselves because we don’t want to deal with the emotional pain that comes from conflict. But the reality is that we make the conflict and pain worse when we’re dishonest; we delay the emotional pain and, like a volcano, it erupts and the dishonest lava burns us. At the cross, the justice of God and the grace of God kissed. Jesus experienced pain to set us free. God’s love gives us the power to make it through emotional pain and conflict. And, on the other side of the pain is freedom.
The only cure for the “fear of not being loved” is found in Jesus and His glorious Gospel. Jesus did not die for us based on our goodness, but His. And the more we realize we’re loved based on the goodness of another, the less we fear not being loved. God the Father eternally loves us because He eternally loves Jesus. And because we are “in” Christ, we too are eternally loved.
