“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees” (Psalm 119:71, NIV).

I had breakfast at a Pancake House this morning with two Christian doctors I had not seen in a long time. One of them I had helped train decades ago. He reminded me of an encounter I had not remembered: “I was an intern on my first ER rotation, knew nothing. A man came in with his tongue protruding from his mouth and contorted movement of his hands. I didn’t have the slightest idea. You were on call, came to see the patient and said almost instantaneously, ‘He’s got into some medicine he shouldn’t have. Give him some Benadryl, and he should be okay.’ It worked, and I thought you were brilliant.” I laughed, “I wasn’t brilliant that night. I got lucky. I may have read about dystonic reactions in a book once, but that’s not the reason I knew it. When my wife was pregnant with our first child a few years ago, she had terrible nausea, so I tried a dose of Phenergan. She developed the same reaction as that man in the ER. That’s how I understood the problem that night.”

As followers of Christ, how do we know what is true?

Certainly, we have a reliable, always true, source of knowledge in the Bible. If we study it hard enough (and we should), we will have great truth in our minds to follow.

However, having it in our minds is not the same as having it in our hearts where it can change our character and pour out in our actions. Knowing God’s truth in our hearts usually comes from experiences where God imbeds His truth.

David knew God’s truth differently after he had slain Goliath.

Moses knew God’s truth differently after crossing the Red Sea.

Peter knew God’s truth differently after he denied Jesus three times.

Just so, when I look back on my own life, it’s been my experiences with God that have solidified the truth of the Bible in my heart.

I can think of several examples, but a few come to mind easily: the truth that He will guide me, the truth that He will deliver me, the truth of His goodness and the truth that I can trust Him with my death. All these truths come from very solid experiences with God in my life, often very difficult experiences.

Oswald Chambers put it well when he describes truth discovered within our difficulties:

“We begin our religious lives by believing our beliefs; we accept what we are taught without questioning; but when we come up against things, we begin to be critical, and we find out that the beliefs, however right, are not right for us because we have not bought them by suffering What we take for granted is never ours until we have bought it by pain. A thing is worth just what it cost.”

Truth comes from both the Bible and from our encounters with the definer of Truth. The way we solidify truth in our hearts is to ground ourselves in God’s Word and invite Him into every experience of our lives.

Dear Father,

Help me to always invite you into my experience, whether happy or harsh.

Amen