Has anyone ever told you to “get real?”  Take off the mask. Let go of pretense. Be authentic.

Sadly, we live in an age where people will do almost anything to create a good image.  Much more time, attention, and money is spent on our outer self than on our inner soul. We end up comparing our insides with everyone’s outsides. It’s not surprising that research tells us the main emotion people experience when they get on social media is envy.

Jesus is all about the truth—authenticity over image.  In John Chapter 8, He shakes up the religious leaders by claiming He has been sent by God.  But many Jews put their faith in Him (John 8:30). To those who believed, He made this promise:

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:31,32 ESV).

The Greek word for “truth” is aletheia.  It means “genuine, authentic, real.”  This Jesus-kind-of-truth is real. It sets us free. But the promise of freedom is conditional.

If I abide in His word, then I’m His disciple.  There’s a direct correlation between spending time in God’s Word and knowing the truth that sets me free.  In my busy, noisy world, I have to be intentional to abide in His word.

That’s why we’re doing the 21 Day Experiment. It helps us learn to abide. If you’re following along, that means you’re committing at least fifteen minutes a day to reading a chapter of John’s Gospel. Then a few minutes praying for specific needs that are on your heart.

I encourage you to stick with this experiment until the very end. Don’t evaluate whether it works until the END of the 21 days. You can even say to yourself, “Well, nothing seems to be happening today, but I’ll postpone judging its impact until after 21 days.”

Over the years, I’ve had friends tell me that they’re glad they stuck it out—sometimes God’s message for them came on the 21^st day.

Being a doer of God’s Word sometimes means that we simply abide. The purpose of abiding is for Jesus to become more real. For His Word to come alive. And to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit within.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for the reminder in John 8 that it’s all about my relationship with you. Everything—even answers to prayer—come out of abiding in You. That’s the real secret to freedom. I pray for that same freedom today for those I love.