Speak Truth in Your Heart

O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart… 

Psalm 15:1-2

I was hiding behind the chair the cat liked to sleep in. My grandmother’s cat was mean, and I dared not get too close. She would rather scratch your eyes out than look at you, my grandmother loved to say. And it was true.

So today, I curled my preschool body up into a tidy squat and tried to stay out of her way. But I needed to be close enough to hear because my mom and my grandmother were having a serious conversation. And it was about me.

My mother was telling a story. Earlier that week, she’d been searching for the bologna and couldn’t find it anywhere. She asked me if I knew where to find it, and I said no. That evening, when she opened the oven, there it was. Apparently, I had been playing and tucked it inside.

She’s just like her father. A liar. It’s in her blood.

My grandmother’s words were sinister, final. 

No argument was made, no lighthearted, compassionate defense of a little child who had been playing house. Sentence had been passed, and the words rose before me like prison bars.

Just like her father.

I never knew my father. Everything I believed about him came from my mother and grandparents. They said he was a bad person, so I believed them. And now I believed I was just like him. Bad through and through.

Shame wounded my identity that day. Shame tells us we are bad and nothing can fix us. Shame is an identity issue and no behavior, no matter how sincere or good, can erase its fatal marks on our belief system. We need a power greater than our best efforts to combat this identity wound.

Marcus Warner, in his book Understanding the Wounded Heart, describes what happened to me and millions of others like me. Maybe even you. 

Using the acronym WLVS, he outlines four steps in one of Satan’s most common strategies: Wounds, Lies, Vows, and Strongholds. According to Warner’s model, the enemy takes advantage of the wounds in our past to convince us that his lies about us and God are true.*  

Unbeknownst to me, I made a vow behind the chair that day. I believed Satan’s lies. Over time, the vow led to strongholds. It took the kindness of Jesus and the truth of His Word to set me free. I broke those vows in Jesus’ name and now I’m free.

Truth has always set me free. That’s truth’s unique and particular power. #truth Click To Tweet

Freedom is possible.

Before we can speak truth in our hearts, we need to out the lies we believe. They are tricky and hidden. They often look like the truth. Hopeless truth, sad truth, sorrowful truth, but truth.

Is there a sad truth you believe about yourself or God today? Start there. Examine it. Ask the Lord to search your heart and mind. Invite Jesus to reveal Truth to you. See how quickly He responds, how ready He is to answer you! He’s been standing ready.

He was standing ready for me. 

I speak truth in my heart now, and it sets me free every day. I walk at liberty, and with unshackled feet, I run! The boundaries fall in pleasant places for those who speak truth in their hearts. There is shameless joy for those who run the meadows of His liberation, the broad plains of His grace and mercy. 

A fatherless girl whose identity was wounded by shame now stands honored before her heavenly Father. In God’s great, victorious irony, my identity is now anchored in the knowledge that I am immeasurably loved by my Father. This is the truest thing about you and me: we are loved by God. 

Jesus turns our lives around. He transforms our identity. The bad become good. The unloved become loved. The lost are found, and the broken are healed. The shamed are honored. Those with no father become children of God.

Come out of the stronghold today, friend. Let the One who is the Truth set you free. No wound, no lie, no vow, no stronghold can keep our Rescuing Redeemer away from you when you call to Him. 

Speak truth in your heart and be free.

Lord, reveal to me any lies I have believed and set me free with Your Truth. Amen.

@audreycfrank

*P. 22, Understanding the Wounded Heart by Marcus Warner

Photo by Isaac Quesada on Unsplash