The Glory of Authenticity

Authenticity is a precious commodity in our contemporary culture. We have become a world of cynics due to the duplicity in Washington D.C., the news outlets, and sadly even in the church. While many are crying out for a spirit of transparency in our nation, they feel powerless to see it transpire. Rather than spending energy on what we cannot change, we need to address the areas within our spheres of influence, especially our own homes.

It is not easy to be authentic. is so much less taxing to put up a Facebook front where everything seems perfect so that others admire our lifestyles and want to be like us. I smile—and grieve—when I look at all the happy posts from numerous individuals when I know what is really going on behind closed doors. What if instead of posting the ideal we posted about those gut-wrenching days when we are disappointed with life or with God? No, that would simply take too much courage. Inauthenticity is much simpler, at least in the short haul.

Over the last five years or so, God has been doing a holy reckoning within the homeschool movement. Numerous ministerial leaders who talked the right talk but failed to follow through with the walk in their own homes have experienced humiliating falls. Their failures have been disappointing to be sure but the reality that “God will not be mocked” (Gal. 6:7) should resound in each of our hearts as we all have our own hypocritical ways.

The wonderful news is that God redeems fallen man. Whenever we are willing to be real with Him, He is more than ready to be real with us. When Christ was fulfilling His earthly mission, He announced that “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” (John 14:30) In other words, Satan had nothing to hold claim over the Christ. There was nothing hidden that he could dangle over His head or bind Him in condemnation. When we are authentic, the devil loses his power over us as well.

Every since Adam and Eve made fig leaves to cover up their shame, we too have become experts at covering up our limps. The devil is okay waiting for an opportunity to embarrass us later as the peripheral damage only increases with the passage of time and the growth of our influence. Instead of hiding from God’s presence like Adam did, we need to lay out everything before Him; after all, He already knows.

I encourage you to take the following requests and set one out each day to talk about and to pray for during your family devotions. Ask your children if this reveals anything in them or in your own home. If God brings something to light, relish in that and pray that He may continue to bring us into a real spirit of authenticity.

1. Pray that God would enable each of us to clearly see our own hypocrisies so that we can acknowledge them and repent.
   • Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.–Phil. 3:15
   • And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. –2 Samuel 12:7
2. Pray that God will give us the necessary courage to be authentic, in our private lives, home, and public lives.
   • But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”–2 Chronicles 15:7
   • For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.–2 Cor. 12:10
3. Pray that we will seek to take the log out of our own eye before we seek to take the speck out of our children’s eyes.
   • Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?–Matt. 7:4
4. Pray that God would help us to build our homes in such a way that our children would feel free to share their weaknesses, fears, and sins.
   • And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.–-Eph. 6:4
   • The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.–Proverbs 14:1
5. Pray that the homeschool community as a whole—and ICHE specifically—will be a safe place for parents and children to share their needs, fears, and sins to receive help in time of need.
   • Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ–Gal. 6:1,2
   • Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.–1 Cor. 13:4-7
6. Pray that in our transparency, the devil would lose his power to condemn us.
   • There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus—Romans 8:1
   • If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.–John 8:36
7. Pray that we will be more concerned with what God thinks of us than with what man thinks.
   • In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.—Psalms 56:11
   • The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?–Psalms 118:6
8. Pray that our honest and transparent pleas to God would be heard and answered in powerful ways that would bring God glory and us into a greater sense of obedience.
   • The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.–Psalms 34:18
   • For He hears the cry of the afflicted.–Job 34:28