Truth Is the Compass
“Rise let us go! Here comes my betrayer.” Matthew 26:46
There’s a shocking little discovery in the story of Jesus going to meet His destiny on Calvary. After wrestling with His Father over the agony before Him, releasing Himself to His Father’s will and coming back to His disciples only to find them asleep and unaware, Jesus deliberately and resolutely moved toward the evil, this great source of His personal and spiritual discomfort in prayer with His Father. Why? Because He faced truth head on, no matter what the consequences.
My queasiest, most uncomfortable moments with evil happen about the evil in my own heart. In fact, my biggest wins against evil have not been in the mission field but in the killing fields of my character — the places in me that sabotage Christ likeness and undermine my relationship with people, beginning most crucially with my wife. I call these the “see to it” areas: “See to it, that the light within you is not darkness” (Luke 11:25). These words of Jesus are burned on my brain mainly because they strongly indicate that God’s man can fake it. Evil has a field day with men who do.
These “see to it” areas should convince us that our motives have been mixed up and the Enemy was given access. We are not at all eager to admit our foibles. But I’m acutely aware of the necessity of admitting and dealing with them and what that means for our personal fight with evil.
Father, honesty starts with examining my motives and intentions, thank you for your Holy Spirit who is never pushy in reminding me.