How Do We Live In Truth? -Dr. Rod Mills

Ephesians 6:14 (NKJV): “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth.”

When Paul tells us to gird our waist with truth, he is not just talking about the truth of God’s word. That is already in his lineup of God’s armor. He is talking about operating in truth in our lives—all truth in all things.

The world tells us that we are entitled to our own truth. But nothing could be further from the truth. God defines truth. Anything else is a lie, regardless of what you call it.
There are basic areas of truth in our lives. It is tempting to avoid the truth when it might be uncomfortable. It is tempting to put our heads in the sand and pretend some things are not true, because we don’t want to think about things that are difficult to deal with. But Paul teaches us that truth is vital to our surviving and thriving. It literally protects the spiritual waist of our souls. (Again, we are not only talking about the word of God; this is another area of the armor of God that also includes truth.) It is tempting to focus so much on the “word-of-God-truth,” that we miss the basic call to be truthful people in lives—with ourselves and with others.  When Paul tells us to gird our waist with truth, he is calling us to be people who are wholly honest with ourselves and with others. In the natural realm, the waist holds many vital organs. The same is true spiritually. Paul uses this metaphor to help us understand that people who do not operate in open and candid truth in their lives, their jobs, their marriages, their relationships and everything else, are exposing themselves to extraordinary damage down the road—profound devastation. No matter how righteous and good we may live, if we do not operate in truth, with hearts that want to know truth and make truth known, we set ourselves up for many life-heartaches that are much worse than the painful truths in everyday life that we try avoid.  I want to share with you some of the questions that I often ask myself, in my quest to operate in truth, freedom, and healing in my life: 
1. What word-of-God-truths and promises does God say about me, that I often forget to believe and appropriate in my life? 
2. Do I fully embrace the promise-truths of God (the word of God) enough in my life to face the difficult truths in my everyday life, that I don’t want to face?
3. What truths am I trying to avoid in my life and relationships?
4. What areas of my life am I deceiving myself and trying to believe something that is probably not true? (When I do this, I often fail to appropriate God’s truths in this area because I do not identify the areas of need in my own life.)
5. Where are the hidden areas that I would rather not explore, because I might discover something that I really don’t want to know about myself or about my relationships or the people I love and care about the most?
These are uncomfortable questions to ask, but their answers will set us free and lead us to places of healing and a better life. Fully living in truth (everyday life-truths and word-of-God truths), protects some of the most vital organs of our souls and sets us on a life-course of freedom and thriving.

​©️Roderick Mills 2023


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