The Way, The Truth, and the Life

Think about the person you most trust in your life. It could be a friend, a parent, a sibling, it could be anyone. Why do you trust them? Is it because they’re loyal? Are they trustworthy and honest? Do they love unconditionally? We all have lists a mile long of what makes someone a good friend. Whether its red flags or green lights, some sort of list or criteria has been created to help us filter out who we want in our corner and who we don’t.

Often times, this list gets projected onto our relationship with the Lord as well. Our experiences shape and define how we see Him. Whether it’s truth or not, we have this lens we see the Lord through. But how kind is He to remind us time and time again of who He really is? How encouraging it is to know He’s a God who isn’t afraid to confront our doubts and fears when they don’t align with His truth.
 
So how do we align ourselves with God’s truth about who He is? How do we make sure our list, our criteria matches with who He actually is? And most importantly, why should our thoughts about who He is be rooted in the actual truth of who He is?

“Don’t worry or surrender to your fear. For you’ve believed in God, now trust and believe in me also.” - John 14:1 TPT

 In the first part of this verse, Jesus is empowering His disciples to not worry or surrender to their fear. Immediately after, Jesus calls them to trust and believe that He is who He says He is. Jesus does the same for us: He empowers us and then He calls us. Why? Because He know we can’t do it alone. He knows that if it were left up to us, we would cave to our worries and our fears. We would’ve already given up before the race even starts. But what happens when you focus on the Lord instead of your worries or fears is things change. Truth begins to take the place of lies. Chains begin to fall off. Transformation begins to happen and it’s important to know that Jesus first and foremost empowers the transformation and then calls us to trust and believe Him.

 I think this is how we start to align ourselves with God’s truth about His identity: we choose to trust and believe instead of surrendering to our worries and fears. The moment we take our eyes off our worries, our fears, and even the ways we think God is lacking and focus them on Jesus we allow change to happen. This heart posture of, “Lord I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to choose you even though I don’t understand,” is all the Lord needs to remind you of who He is. It’s an open invitation to know Him and be known by Him.
 
Now why is this important? Why should we be rooted in the truth of who Jesus is instead of who we think He is?

Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too. And from now on you will realize that you have seen him and experienced him.” - John 14:6-7 TPT

It’s so easy for me to overlook this verse and just say, “Yupp. He sure is. I’ve heard this before.” But the moment I slow down and breathe and let this sink deep into my bones, I can’t help but be in awe.
 
 To put this simply: Jesus is everything.

 He is everything we will ever need—whether that’s where we are going, what we are believing, and even the air we breathe. And the best part of it is He’s inviting us into a union with Him.
 
He’s inviting us to know Him and be known by Him—to the depths of our being. He’s inviting us to see and experience who He is. He’s inviting us into truth and life because that’s who He is.  Jesus is inviting us into a relationship that encompasses every aspect of this declaration He has just made.

 When we trust and believe that Jesus is everything, nothing else matters. These identities He reveals in John 14 are quite literally filled with truth and life because that’s who He is. He’s not subject to changing, He’s actually constant and steadfast and these are the identities He empowers and calls us to believe in John 14:1. In this place of choosing belief over unbelief we break the holds the enemy has on our life. We begin to let light into dark places. We begin to choose resurrection over death. We choose a King who unconditionally empowers us and loves us however many times we need Him to.
 
 So in the times where you want to surrender to your worries and fears, I pray you would choose to trust and believe in Him instead. I pray you would choose to do the hard thing over the “easy” thing. I pray you would choose to fight instead of laying down. I pray you would choose light over darkness and resurrection over death. I pray you would choose this relationship that will always offer truth and life because that’s who you’re choosing: the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Author | Elizabeth Sprinkle