This is often a root cause for lacking peace in life …

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There is a mental health issue — and a spiritual issue — that is often a root cause for people lacking peace they believe Christians are supposed to have.

What is that root issue?

Discrepancies.

Discrepancies are when we say we believe one thing, but we act differently from what we say we believe.

Let’s look at some examples. Ken Pell shares one plucked from history:

    On August 6, 1945 the man once described as “an outstanding Baptist layman,” President Harry Truman, stood on the deck of the battleship Augusta right after the first atomic bomb was dropped and proclaimed, “This is the greatest thing in history.” Few American Christians challenged his claim.

    Just a few years earlier (at the beginning of World War II) President Truman issued a proclamation which said, “The bombing of helpless and unprotected civilians is a strategy that has aroused the horror of all mankind. I recall with pride that the United States consistently has taken the lead in urging that this inhuman practice be prohibited.”

That’s a discrepancy — Truman expressed a particular belief but had acted opposite of what he had stated.

When it comes to our mental and emotional health, maintaining discrepancies disrupts our experience of peace because the tension from the presence of discrepancies can foster stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues like depression that disturb our capacity for peace. That’s because we understand internally that we’re out of harmony — our thoughts are out of sync with our actions, and THAT creates inner turmoil.

Discrepancies also make for a spiritual problem, something scripture highlights on several occasions. Here are some examples:

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye,” Matthew 7:3-5.

“Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it,” Romans 2:21-23.

“But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy,” Galatians 2:11-13.

“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good,” Titus 1:15-16.

We avoid inner turmoil by making sure there are no discrepancies between what we say we believe and how we actually live. And we experience spiritual harmony when the way we live matches what what scripture actually teaches.

If you’re lacking peace in your life, examine yourself to see if you’re harboring any discrepancies; if you are, make whatever correction is necessary to eliminate the discrepancy. That was actually the instruction Jesus gave to people in order for them to avoid the discrepancies modeled by their religious leaders:

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden,” Matthew 23:1-4.

Jesus went further. He calls out a discrepancy, and then likens the lack of discrepancy as foundational to a resilient life:

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins,” Luke 6:46-49.

Scotty