"Following God's Truth"

We both enjoy seeing towering windmills in country landscapes. They are a pleasant sight reminding us of a bygone era. Some windmills are now decorative such as ours, but many others are still functional such as the one pictured to the left, which pumps water to a storage tank on an Amish farm.

The most common windmill and tower is the classic 8 foot wheel on a 27 foot tower, a clone of the Aermotor windmill made from 1933. The American windmill, or wind engine, was invented by Daniel Halladay in 1854 and was used mostly for lifting water from wells. Larger versions were also used for tasks such as sawing wood, chopping hay, shelling and grinding grain.

A working windmill is designed to shift direction with the wind and this is effective in efficiently utilizing the wind’s power. Although prevailing winds may come from one direction they also shift and the design of the windmill adjusts for these shifts. This design is beneficial for the windmill but devastating for those who are “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14).

We have a small 6’ tall decorative windmill along the walkway to our front porch (seen in the above photo I took this snowy morning). It still spins but I have locked the turning mechanism so it faces west from where the prevailing winds come. It occurs to me that likewise we need to fix our lives so that we never turn away but always face God's truth!

In our first daily text Daniel is writing concerning the exiled Jews, who are Scripturally known as “the remnant” (see Isaiah 10:21). The first part of the ninth chapter of Daniel is one of the great prayers of the Bible and the daily verse comes from this prayer. The Jews had been exiled to Babylon as a result of years of failing to live by God’s Law. Moses had warned of this and now Daniel acknowledges, "All this trouble has come upon us".

Daniel summarized the foundational reason leading to this trouble as "Yet we have not looked for the favor of the Lord" and goes on to specify two evidences of their failure to do this:

    1) by turning from our sin and
    2) following Your truth.”

But today we want to consider the single phrase, "following Your truth". Just consider how fundamentally and commonly this failure to follow God’s truth is expressed today. Evidence of people’s rejection of God’s truth is all around us.  I once read a sign with this truism, “Truth is hate to those who hate the truth.”  Indeed many today hate the truth and associate the truth with hate. And they express that hatred toward ambassadors of truth.

The God of the universe is fundamentally characterized by truth. Jesus said, “I am… the truth” (John 14:6).  He said, “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17). He spoke of the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17). Isaiah uses the descriptive title, “God of truth” (65:16). The Psalmist asserts, “All your words are true” (Psalm 119:160). And the writer of Hebrews informs us that “It is impossible for God to lie” (6:18). What great assurance this brings God’s people as they build their spiritual foundation on God’s Holy Word!

The ancient people of God did not follow God’s truth and neither do the majority of people living today. One of the most descriptive verses in the Bible regarding the human condition is found in the Epistle to the Romans, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (1:25). Talk about moral bankruptcy! The apostle Paul gives a sobering indictment in 2 Thessalonians 2:10, “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved".

What about us today? Are we following God’s truth? My prayer today is expressed by the Psalmist, “Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell” (Psalm 43:3).



Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

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