Honesty with our Hearts

By James Bradford

Marshall McLuhan’s popular assertion that the medium is the message may not fully apply when it comes to preaching. God’s Word clearly embodies potency and authority independent of our personal inadequacies as its messengers. Nevertheless we do exegete the text of Scripture in part by the way we live the text. Mother Teresa understood this: “Just allow people to see Jesus in you; to see how you pray, to see how you lead a pure life, to see how you deal with your family, to see how much peace there is in your family. Then you can look straight into their eyes and say, ‘This is the way.’”¹

With impressive courage King David prayed: “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23). Rigorous honesty with ourselves may be tough, but it must be the relentless pursuit of every person entrusted with speaking truth to others. If it was easy, we would all do it. Unfortunately image too often wins over integrity. Defensiveness, rationalization, people-pleasing, externalism, busyness, fatigue—they all fight to divert us from the painful work of God-illumined honesty with our own hearts.

No wonder Paul urged Timothy to: “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers (1 Timothy 4:16, emphasis mine). Several years ago I formulated seven two-word imperatives to help me quantify the 'my life' aspect of what Paul is coaching Timothy to 'perseveringly' pay attention to. Along with each phrase is a diagnostic question, a kind of litmus test to help chart our progress.

1. KNOW GOD: If the preaching ministry was taken from me, would I still have a personal, growing relationship with Jesus?

2. PURSUE INTEGRITY: Are there areas of ongoing secrecy in my life that I am trying to hide from those closest to me?

3. BE YOURSELF: Am I living under the self-imposed pressure of always having to prove something to somebody?

4. OWN RESPONSIBILITY: Do I acknowledge my mistakes or do I project blame and use the pulpit to vent unresolved anger?

5. EMBRACE CHANGE: Is my attitude faith-filled and future-focused or am I overly nostalgic about the past and fearful of taking risks in the present?

6. LOVE LEARNING: Am I coasting intellectually or am I applying myself to the disciplines of personal study and reflection?

7. LIVE JOYFULLY: Do I love what I am doing or have I taken the pressures of ministry onto myself?

Our biggest problem truly is our own hearts. Thankfully, trusted people who know us well can help us when we want to duck the issues. If we are married, this probably starts with our spouses. They often read us more accurately than we read ourselves. We must not let our own reactiveness, hypersensitivity, or denial fog up the mirror of self-awareness that they are placing in front of us.

Accountability partners also ought to have permission to ask us the hard questions—not only concerning our vulnerability to particular sins, but concerning our attitudes, motivations, and strategies for health. Spiritual health starts with honesty, and that honesty is usually too difficult for any of us to navigate alone.
Above all we must experience the ongoing work of the Cross, applied by the power of the Spirit, for both 'life' and 'doctrine' to line up in our lives. Being Pentecostal means more than being anointed when we preach; it means being full of the Holy Spirit whether we preach or not. Stanley M. Horton observes, “When the Sadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection He told them, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God’ (Matt. 22:29). My thesis is that you cannot truly know the Scriptures apart from the power of God. Knowing only the letter kills ‘but the Spirit gives life’” (2 Corinthians 3:6). ²

Reflective Questions:

1. How would I answer the seven questions listed above?

2. Who is speaking honestly into my life and what are they saying?

Notes

1. Mother Teresa, Words to Love By (Notre Dame: Ava Maria Press, 1983), 15.

2 Stanley M. Horton, Reflections of an Early American Pentecostal (Baguio City, Philippines: APTS Press, 2001), 1.