Treasured Truth

As we begin to learn about what a man worth having looks like, we’ll see how the Biblical character Othniel in Judges 1 exhibited several characteristics which that kind of man should possess.

A woman worth having knows her value.  Many women do not understand that they are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Today, Pastor Ford will encourage women to quit letting other people make them into the equivalent of bargain basement deals, when in reality, they are actually top shelf treasures—extremely valuable and worth having.

As we begin a study in Proverbs 31, Pastor Ford will clarify the meaning of the word “virtue” in this passage.  He has disocovered that it’s not focusing on purity.  But instead, it’s focusing on power—the power of a woman.  He’ll explain that a woman worth having is able and she’s powerful in her activities and her actions, just like the woman described in this proverb.   

If we’ve been untruthful, and we’ve told someone a lie, then we need to be forgiven of the lie so effective communication can be restored.  As long as the lie is between us and the person we are trying to communicate with, we can go back and forth with them all we want to, but we still have to deal with the lie.  Once it’s dealt with, then we can begin to achieve effective communication again with that person. 

In our relationships, if something is really bothering us and we don’t address it, but instead we pretend that nothing is wrong, then we’re not really being honest. When someone asks us, “What’s wrong?” And we say, “Nothing.”—that’s a lie.  Pastor Ford asks us today—How can we actually discover truth in our conversations with others, when we choose to ignore it ourselves?

With this final message from his series on forgiveness, Pastor Ford explains that even though people may sometimes mean to harm us, God can take what someone did against us for evil and use it for our good.

The biggest communication problem is that we do not listen to understand.  Instead, we listen to reply.  We’re waiting so that we can say, “Oh no, that was not what you said, or that didn’t go down like that.” So, we’re actually preparing our reply rather than trying to understand what the other person is really trying to communicate. 

Pastor Ford encouarges each of us to ask ourselves, “Is there something or someone that’s in the way, causing my communication to fail?”  Because a lot of times we really have to be careful about who’s giving us input into our relationships.

To communicate is to share intimate information with someone, that is either verbal or non-verbal, in a manner in which the person understands.  But if there isn’t any understanding, then there hasn’t actually been any real communication.

Honest communication is so important in any relationship.  When we lie and when we get angry, we give the devil an opportunity to get into our relationships.  And that’s exactly what he wants.  And so, when we do those things, we’re actually playing into the devil’s hands.