The Importance of Truth

UV 848-10,000 The Importance of Truth Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “ I did not laugh.” But he said, “ Yes, you did laugh.” Genesis 18 v 15 Our faith should always exceed our circumstances. That is a sign that we are growing spiritually. Abraham was declared a man of faith by God Himself but he could not reconcile his and his wife Sarah’s advanced age with the promise that they would have a son. He fell facedown and laughed at the very thought that a son could be born to him at the age of hundred and that Sarah would bear a son at ninety. Disbelieving a promise of God is disbelieving God and making Him out to be a liar. This incident is a pointer to the importance of trusting completely the promise of God however outrageous and incredible it might seem the moment it is spoken or received in our lives. The Lord works amazing changes in our lives and in our world through the agency of promises. But when the three visiting messengers of God told Sarah that she would bear a son, she too laughed but she denied that she laughed. She laughed as she thought that she was too old and worn out to bear a son for Abraham. She was well past the age of child bearing. In a time of prayer, it was revealed that Sarah’s denial and her lie had consequences. She did not live to see the marriage of Isaac to Rebecca. Though Abraham had laughed, he did not lie while Sarah lied about having laughed. Indeed, we are never too old or worn out to bear fruit unto and from the Lord. The Lord is sensitive to our human reactions. He is pleased where He sees a faithful response and feels slighted when we react with doubt or derision or mocking laughter. When we are given some extraordinary promise from the Lord, we need to be careful about our reaction. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. We should not express our doubt or laugh in doubt. Having laughed, we should not deny it but seek the Lord ‘s forgiveness. Rather we should laugh in anticipation of what the Lord is going to do in our lives. This incident underlines the importance of truthfulness of our communication with the Lord and His representatives. While it was a fact that Sarah and Abraham were too old to bear a child, they should have rested on the truth that nothing is impossible or too difficult for God. A lie can affect our life even as the promise of God being nothing but the truth transforms our destiny. It is not the facts that we know that shape our lives but the faith that we hold on to. We need to make a distinction between limiting factors and faith possibilities, between facts, circumstances and truth. Prateep V Philip