Truth AND Dare

by Hadley Baker

Remember when you were a kid and you played the game TRUTH OR DARE? Most of us have played that at least once in life.  Maybe you played while you had a friend staying the night at your house and ya'll got bored.  Maybe you were with a group of friends and someone got the game started. Maybe you never played. The game is really simple...either you have to tell the truth about something really secretive or embarrassing, or you have to accept a challenge in the form of a dare. 

Today I wanna rename the game: Truth AND Dare. I am not interested in daring you to do something stupid, although I know many of you reading this would probably be totally okay with doing something stupid.  I wanna dare you to do something that most of you are probably not doing on a regular basis.  Maybe never at all.

Today I wanna dare you to simply take time and be alone with God in an unhurried and undistracted way.  Doesn't have to be super long, could be only ten minutes or so.  But I want you to block out some time today to get alone in a quiet place and connect with God.  What does this look like?

Take some time to worship God.  Maybe pull up some Christian worship music on YouTube or Spotify to help you (some good ones are Hillsong United, Bethel, Jesus Culture, Phil Wickham, and Elevation). After you worship a little, take a few moments to just talk to the Lord.  Tell him EVERYTHING that's going on in your heart. Your hopes and dreams, doubts and fears, stumbles and struggles.  Just talk to Him.  And I want to encourage you to do one more thing--just sit.  You read that right.  Just sit there.  Don't talk, don't pray, don't worship.  LISTEN.  Think. Consider. Reflect. The Bible name for this is called MEDITATION.  

PSALM 1:1-3
Oh, the joys of those who do not
    follow the advice of the wicked,
    or stand around with sinners,
    or join in with mockers.
² But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night.
³ They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do.

Did you see the m-word in verse two?  Do you want your life to be blessed?  Do you want God's favor and blessing on everything you do?  Then meditate on God's Word day and night.  Let it live inside of you.  But how do you meditate on something you have never studied?  This leads to the last thing I wanna dare you to do.  Commit to study your Bible daily.  When we stop sending out these SUBMERGE devotionals in a few weeks, I hope you will continue to study on your own.  There are so many plans on the YouVersion Bible App.

Let me end by saying this--Jesus is TRUTH.  He even said so (read John 14:6).  To know Him is to know Truth. So if you will take this challenge / dare today, you will experience more and more of the truth.  And in John 8:32 Jesus said, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  So the Truth and the dare go hand-in-hand.  I know many of you will finish reading this, and just go on with your day.  But I get excited because I also know that there are many of you who are gonna take the dare to know Truth.  And please don't let this be a one-day thing.  Do your best to get alone with God every day.  If you do, I promise it will change your life.  

Hope to see you at Awakening tomorrow morning (8:00-9:00 at the church...you can show up anytime).