“But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what my God says.””
2 Chronicles 18:13 NLT
The backstory to this verse was, Ahab and Jehoshaphat were wondering if they should go to battle. They sought the help of the prophets and every one of them said it was a great idea and that they would be victorious. Then Jehoshaphat asked if there was a prophet that they could ask who would speak on behalf of God. Ahab said there was but he didn’t like him because he never said anything that Ahab wanted to hear. So, the two kings sent a messenger to Micaiah to see if he would speak to God for them. The messenger also said that Micaiah should say good things about the battle to improve his standing with the king. The verse for today is Micaiah’s response.
Of course it is easy to say the first thing that comes to our mind, or to follow the crowd. As Christians, we are called to speak God’s truth, not what other people want to hear or what we think they should know. This is made even more difficult by a world that doesn’t often want to hear what God’s truth is. Truth has become a somewhat relative term, but it was never meant to be. Truth is supposed to come straight from the mouth of God and any other source is not true.
Today, for each and every one of us, I hope two things. First, I hope that we are listening to the right sources. Where we get our information often informs how we make our decisions. Remember, there are always at least two sides to every story and things are not always as they seem. Secondly, I hope that when we are faced with a decision between speaking the truth God has for the world or stating our opinion, that we will always, always choose truth.