Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
1 24 2024
“The truth about a man lies first and foremost in what he hides.”
“The truth about a man lies first and foremost in what he hides.” so wrote André Malraux in 1967.
We may broadcast what we want to be known for, but we hide what we are.
What does that say to you? What are the first thoughts that come to mind? What darkness lurks beyond that inner, secret door of our past that we speak of rarely and prefer it that way? I know…if people knew some of the things I have done or said or even thought, they probably wouldn’t think so highly of me. That is important to most of us. (Let sleeping dogs lie).
Perhaps the friends we have don’t know enough of the good in us, to be expected to forgive the bad in us. Or at least the bad that was once bad in us.
Robert Bolt said— ‘The man who tells lies hides the truth, but the man who tells half-lies
has forgotten where he put it.’
How many times have we worked so hard to put a besetting sin behind us, made promises to God, did well for a while but then failed again? And so we carry our past around hiding it from most who would never know unless they knew us back then and we forget to realize that not only does God know what we are going to say He knows every bit of our hidden past. How can we hope to move forward if we keep looking in our rearview mirror…trying to hide from God those tormenting past sins?
Isaiah 43:18-19 says it clearly, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” God has a future for each of us, but we must trust what God’s word says 100’s of time throughout his word. God wants us to get it! Take him at his word! And lay down the lies the enemy keeps filling our head with.
In Exodus 23:20, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.” He never sends us alone. He wants us to start seeing into the spirit like Elisha’s servant was able to do in 2nd Kings
Look again In Job 17:9, “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.” Can you claim the promise that moving forward with God makes us stronger?
Yes, you can!
And let’s deeply take in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
When we open our hidden closets to the Lord of Lords who sits on the throne of our hearts, we discover that before me looms the prize that is waiting for each of us. We cannot give that up for the lie of the past that he has already paid for. We must Believe God can remove those old thoughts and sins and hidden memories and throw them into the sea of forgetfulness
and know a freedom we have only imagined.
If you Truly Believe God can and will remove these sins from your thoughts and throw them into the sea of forgetfulness, He tells us this in His word. Micah 7:18-20 (ESV)
“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea”.
Remember his words….take them in…believe them…but mostly believe God. John 8:47 says it more clearly than I can; ” Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” YOu are forgiven. Believe that and be free.
Oceans Where Feet may Fall
