LIES AND TRUTH - An inspirational life-changing short story by Frank Savi - Frank Savi

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THE TRUTH DOESN’T COST YOU ANYTHING BUT A LIE CAN COST YOU EVERYTHING Francesco Savonarola Gentile (Frank Savi) © 2020 Author’s Note When I started writing I had a mission in mind: help people realize the beauty of life despite every situation or problem possible. I hope this short story will make a difference. God helped me on this project because I stretched my hand to Him. Are you willing to stretch yours too? Well, this can be your move. Sufferings “ Rejoice in sufferings, because suffering produce endurance and endurance build up a great character that can walk fearlessly firmly through everything in this world. ” ~ Frank Savi _ It was a dark period of my life. In those years I was often lonely, I couldn’t fit in the society and as time was passing by the situation wasn’t improving but getting worst instead. I had enough of suffering and I was very unhappy about my life. When I was trying to achieve something, this turned out to be a disappointment and everything was going in wrong or unexpected ways. I was almost giving up; fed up with struggles and failures, sometimes I just wished to disappear forever. I was wrongly so mad with God because my life was miserably sad and no one seemed to care. My family at that time couldn’t understand me fully too, but that’s why I was barely able to do it myself. I was becoming a bad person: the young man full of life and dreams was almost dead. I was still alive, but the greatest loss was being dead inside. I felt like my existence had no purpose neither significance, hence my will to live was almost zero. I didn’t love my life and then, when I started to find comfort mainly in drinking and smoking, I realized to have reached rock bottom. I was in a deep hole of desolation, but all my efforts to escape were in vain because I was always returning there, repeating the same old mistakes. In my mental prison, death and despair were daily thoughts. All this was bad and very uncomfortable, but despite of my will to get better, I couldn’t do so. I tried everything in my possibilities to move from stalling, but the starting point was always home. Whenever it seemed like I was going to make it, suddenly I was back there, in my sad reality. I needed a kind of help no person could give me: I had no hope. I was far from the light, and blinded by darkness I didn’t know that unconsciously I was gasping for truth like air. But what was this truth? In a constant changing world, full of different people with different mindsets, what I was really looking for? I didn’t like my reality and I wanted to change it, but it took me a while to understand that only one Truth can free us and lead to everlasting joy, peace and happiness. I found what I was searching for only after I discovered who God really was and started getting the first signs. God was looking for me since ever and when I finally made myself available, I couldn’t help to look for Him all the time: I always wanted more. Truth is we only search for God when we please, forgetting He’s always watching over us. We can hide from people’s eyes, but we cannot hide from the eyes of our all- knowing Lord. Yet, most often, we seek Him occasionally, while we should every day. Even if I was desperate, I didn’t ask for God’s help, and so I regretfully had to see the darkness before appreciating the light. The dark world was very threatening and unsafe; playing with evil forces or ‘demons’ got me in many troubles. Everyone has a dark side indeed, but if we choose to never bring it alive, God will always protect us. “ God is our mighty fortress, always ready to help in times of trouble. And so, we won't be afraid! ” ~ Psalms 46:1-2 The enemy can be very deceitful and use everything in attempting to destroy you; that’s because while God wants nothing but your love from you, Satan wants everything you have and he can use his filthy tricks to make you fall. On our side though, even if we cannot control these things, we can certainly choose how to deal with them. “ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ” ~ 1 Peter 5:8 Many people tried to bring out the worst part of myself, but at first I responded them with a bad attitude too. Thank God then I understood that there is no point in doing so. Don’t lose the good in you trying to fight bad in others; you don’t extinguish fire with fire, therefore evil cannot be fought with evil. Without going into details, I’ve seen death too many times, perhaps more than necessary. Yet, through it all, I’ve been always protected by God and pulled out of the worst scenarios either with a blessing or a lesson. So, even though it’s important to stay watchful and alert, evil doesn’t deserve all our consideration, God does. Seek Him over everything because His power is higher than anything else and He can always show you what’s right. Unpleasant and unfortunate events often happen because man trust man and people rely on anything but God. Instead, if you rely on the Lord and trust unconditionally only Him, you will know what to do in every situation. Don’t try to be right at any cost and prevail over others in a rude or aggressive way, let go and let God instead. Mind your own business when it’s better so, be at peace with who you can and always help others when you have the opportunity to do it. Be strong but not rude, be humble but not timid, be kind but not weak. Try to be nice with everyone because you can never know their struggles. Moreover, it’s essential to control and keep our thoughts always positive: they rule our life. Lies and toxic thoughts must be stopped immediately before it’s too late and become our reality. We can leave to God everything too big and difficult for us to handle because for Him our problems are small like sand grains. Our loving Father wants us to come to Him just the way we are, with all our flaws and weaknesses; in this way He can work on us, strengthen us, and bring out the best version of ourselves every day. Signs “ Look always up, that’s the sign you’ve been waiting for. ” ~ Frank Savi _ Sadly, I straight ignored the first signs I received. I didn’t realize they had good purposes and ignoring them was unfortunately keeping me even closer to the society lies and fake beliefs. Coincidences, distractions, accidents, flukes... many are the names we give to things we cannot explain or control; we strive to find some sort of rational explanation for them, but there isn’t really one. After I’ve been through a lot, I realized that what cannot be rationally explained it’s certainly explainable on the spiritual level. Since the last few years have been really crazy for me, I wish I knew first God has the real control and the final saying over everything. As far as we try to do something, we must keep in mind that we are nothing without Him and He has always the best intentions for us. Since everything depends on God, the sooner we admit His existence and believe in His almighty power, the sooner we’ll know how to better manage our life. Learning about God and His ways, I realized most of my life choices were wrong because mainly made with ego and pride. I couldn’t go back to erase or even try to change them, but I decided to put an end to the old me because I was given a new chance to start again. Without changing my past, thanks to God’s presence and help, I could have changed my future, aiming for a brighter one. Life for many people is hard and complicated, it was for me too and sometimes still is, but without God it will be more. These days we try to force things that aren’t meant for us to come our way, getting stressed when there’s no need to and making our problems bigger than they actually are. We don’t give space to God to change the situation or even better change us: that’s what we are really doing. Negative forces are all around, but signs are powerful ways our Creator can use to communicate and redirect us back to Him. These signs are different for everyone: numbers, words, people, things or simply intuitions from which we can figure out to be not alone in our struggles. As we know, God works in mysterious ways, so His angels will try often to reach out us with the right support to fulfill our destiny. When we decide to let God be the director of our lives, we’ll finally experience changes for good: His plan is always the best and His power unlimited. We’ll look at reality in a genuine way and everything will be significantly different as we’re discovering the true essence of life, ignoring all the lies in it. “ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. ” ~ Romans 8:28 Even situations and events that may look bad in the first place can turn into something great for those who believe. If we let Him, God can use everything for our sake and to manifest His glory through us. Waiting plays an important role in this process because God’s timing is not like ours, but without Him we’ll live badly our wait. So we must wait when waiting is required but stop stalling when we need to take action. Since God is bigger than our worries, it’s good habit to consult Him before making plans and overthinking about them. We have free will and we can make our choices, but choosing God’s side will produce remarkable results. We’ll be at peace even in the most difficult circumstances because whilst all things here are temporary, our peace in Jesus is eternal and transcending of all understandings. “ Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid. ” ~ John 14:27 Sacrifices “ Sacrifice without a good purpose is meaningless. ” ~ Frank Savi _ When we place our life safely in God’s hands, we are implicitly accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. There is no other way to say that and no greater Truth. ‘’ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ’’ ~ John 14:16 No lie and nothing else can ever take over this statement, as a matter of fact this is God’s word. We are free in Jesus name and everyone who calls on Him will be saved. The price to be free from evil and saved from the slavery of our sins has already been paid dearly with His precious blood and redeemed with His resurrection. During history a lot of men tried to be God, while Jesus is God who become man. He’s the King of kings, but we hanged Him on a cross instead of letting sit on a throne and crowned with thorns instead of gold. Jesus renounced to His divine privileges to be like us; He never sinned, yet He suffered and died for our sins once for all. But death could not hold Him and He is risen so we could be reconciled to God through His blood. Feel His love and rejoice in Him because God elevated Him above all the existence. If we believe and accept His ultimate sacrifice as our gift, we can share His powerful victory over sin and death too, recognizing that our spiritual needs are the most important part of life. Body and mind have needs too, of course, we are humans... but if our soul is dry and damaged, we’ll never be completely satisfied. Persistent sins damage the soul, evil ways can destroy us, and the absence of true repentance doesn’t allow God to restore what has been lost. At first, for a considerable breakthrough, we must be willing to do sacrifices in this world and to give up everything standing in the way between God and us. Through our spirit we can connect with Jesus and allow Him to renew our soul. Our main provision must come from the Lord and His word: feed your spirit with it to keep it strong. Through the valuable teachings of the Holy Bible, thanks to our unlimited God, we can find all the strength we need to endure and overcome the enemy and his limited possibilities. Since each verse is full of deep meanings, don’t just read the Scriptures, meditate on its messages instead. “ The word of the Lord is truth. It is sweet music for the ears of the righteous, sweet like honey to taste, light for his eyes. ” ~ Frank Savi When I had absolutely no clue of what to do, to avoid making any further mistakes I decided to fast and continuously pray in order to seek God. I wanted to hear more from Him and less from the world, therefore I handed over all my thoughts to Him and surrendered to His will. Do your part and surely God will do His; our time on earth is limited, stop wasting it and make the best of every second. We have to get uncomfortable with the corrupted world to get comfortable with God and pursue what is not. “ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ” ~ James 4:8 During my darkest time Jesus was always there for me. He loved me at my lowest point in life and held out my hand to pull me out the ‘fire of hell’; then, when I experienced this powerful love, I wanted Him to fill my life more than ever. His word was healing every area of it and His Spirit fill my sense of emptiness better than anything before. “ I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. ” ~ John 6:35 The good news is we are only asked to do little sacrifices in this world. Jesus died for us so we may live, so we are literally paying a little price since He already paid it all. Although the lands of this world where to cultivate our dreams are often so arid, our sacrifices, soon or later, will be repaid with incredible blessings. If God allow us to suffer for a certain time, we have still to trust Him: we are not seeing the whole vision yet and only a leap of faith can keep us going. “ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ” ~ Hebrews 11:1 The Holy Bible is full of men like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David… which fervid faith allowed God to realize great works through them. They all succeeded in their endeavors and gained what was promised. With the coming of Jesus, God’s promise has been taken to the ultimate level as we can receive blessings in this world and eternal life in the other. If we believe in the process and walk always by faith, the outcome will be surprising. My renewal in Christ wasn’t easy but necessary, life-changing, and definitely worth it. I made sacrifices I never thought I was capable of, found patience I wasn’t aware to have, and became a better person with improved qualities. Patience is not the ability to wait but to keep a good attitude while waiting: since God has already figured out everything ahead, you can feel safe, confident, and at peace. Your mistakes are in the past, so from now on try to stay patient, relax, and enjoy your trip like you do on a plane or a ship not even knowing the pilot or the captain; instead, we know God and life is our ride, so through highs and lows we will trust Him. Faith can make flowers grow even in the desert; during our trials through eyes of faith everything will be clearer and start to make more sense. “ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. ” ~ Hebrews 11:6 Sacrifices and obedience to God are necessary to forge and master our spiritual power, indispensable in this world. If we are bonded to God, joy, love and grace can be the best weapons against all negative forces; ‘killing them with kindness’ is the safe way to not let these lies corrupt our hearts. If we endure when hatred will try to stop us, grace will carry us on and replace the despair in our spirit with great joy. Grace is the unmerited and unearned God’s gift offered to all of us with the salvation through Jesus Christ. Our Lord is the supreme source of joy and grace, however it’s our choice to fully embrace this foundation by faith. “ Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ” ~ Hebrews 12:2 In short, it’s up to us choose to live a good and godly life, we have the resources to do it and the first step is following Jesus and His teachings. So, love one other and don’t despise your neighbor, but treat everyone equally without judging. Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself, but instead pray even for your enemies. Everyone needs help and it can be found in the love of Christ, which we are called to share instead of spreading hatred. The worries in this world can be high, but thanks to Jesus we can overcome all our fears and anxieties, doubts and paranoid thoughts. Worrying and having faith are opposites, we cannot practice both at the same time. Hence, when we feel overwhelmed the best to do is sustaining our faith by prayer. “ Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. ” ~ Peter 5:7 Visions and Blessings “ The Spirit of the Lord is the only one worth living for. ” ~ Frank Savi _ Visions are basically glimpses of a near or distant future and usually require a deep state of spiritual awareness, meditation, and prayer. Although everyone prays for different things, it’s important to understand that praying doesn’t make too much sense if we first don’t build up a personal relationship with Jesus. This allows God to bless us with the strongest force possible: His Spirit. Praying is call for God’s help and it can give us access to the source of everything, praying in the name of Jesus has indeed an infinite and great power. When our actions are meditated by praying and put into effect through the Holy Spirit, we can even aim for the stars and achieve outstanding goals in our life. Through the reading of the Holy Bible, we can deepen our knowledge of this supernatural force and learn how to walk and live in it. The Spirit will manifest in us differently and everyone can receive specific spiritual gifts that we are called to share through its fruits, of which the most important is certain love. “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ” ~ Galatians 5:22-23 Time by time the Holy Ghost can reveal us what must be done or changed in order to follow God’s plan. In our prayers we can always ask with confidence because through the Spirit we’ll be empowered to reach our full potential and destiny. Jesus was full of the Spirit and He left us this supernatural force to be our faithful guide; everyone who ask for it shall receive this power. Even if the spiritual warfare between evil and good is still between us and the fight between lies and truths is no joke, with the power of the spiritual armor of God we’ll be able to stand against all evil forces without any fear: Jesus’ authority can defeat them all. “ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ” ~ Ephesians 6:17 God is sovereign and He knows well how to manage the evil among us. In uncertain times our God is certain, and so we will trust Him until the second coming of Jesus, when harmony and peace will rule all earth. Fear and love God before anything else, He’s the administrator of our lives and He can decide who lives or die, not us. Our life is His gift and we shouldn’t take it for granted but grateful for every single breathe. If we remove these beliefs, the fear and love of everything else can suddenly take place in our hearts and keep us away from God. If we take distance from our Father, we’ll be misled by evil forces on a wrong path full of threats and temptations; thankfully, the Holy Spirit can keep us away from these wicked ways and order the steps in our life journey. If we are led by the Spirit, our visions, through prayer plus God’s work and ours, can become real. “ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. ” ~ Philippians 4:6-7 However, don’t expect God to grant every wish of yours; He’s not a genie and if your prayers are trivial you will be easily disappointed. Way too often, we pray in selfish ways for things we don’t really need, which we consider good in those moments, but the truth is God wants to give us more than our expectations. If you pray with all your heart and most important in the Spirit, you can obtain enough faith to believe that great things will come your way to help you and others. I can assure you it’s always worth the waiting. Stay away from temptations and the Lord will provide. He knows you better than yourself and so He can give you what’s completely tailored to fit your needs. The devil, on the contrary, can offer you easy ways and shortcuts for the merely pleasure of the flesh. Temptations, unlike divine providence, lead to many sins. Sin is destructive and the death of your holiness; when you sin, the purity of your heart will be stained black as with a white robe. This displease God as it’s an insult towards Him and the cause of our fall from grace. Today some think they’re good people just because they are not committing evil deeds or mortal sins, but really even the smallest lie can be a serious sin. Clearly we’re all sinners, but God is still willing to forgive us and save through His Son. But if we continue to follow the devil’s lead, it’s sure that soon or later we’ll pay for our mistakes, regretting we did so. I’ve been tested and tried in many different ways, so I know that resisting sin initially is hard. Temptations are everywhere and I admit I’ve failed a lot of times, but when we ask for Jesus’ help, He’s always ready for us. I fell down, but with Him I got up again stronger than before. Thanks to my constant faith I overcame all my addictions, regained my physical and spiritual health, and separated myself from all the wrong things unpleasing God. Today I can finally say to be grateful even for my time of suffering because it made me the man I am. Therefore, as far as your faith will be tested, you need to endure to obtain the best. God breaks chains and not promises, wait for His favors with faith and patience. We serve an Almighty God and His grace and goodness for the righteous are endless. “ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ” ~ James 4:7 Humble before God and get rid of counterproductive things such as your ego, toxic relationships, non-supportive friends, unhealthy addictions, negative thoughts, people’s opinion and everything that could push you away from Him. Stop being materialistic and selfish, start to seek what’s really important. Money is not your god, stop chasing it desperately like a fool. Don’t believe in the society lies: no person, no job, no car and nothing else can make you really happy if your life is not filled with the Spirit and Jesus not at center of your heart. Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its eternal things, then God will provide for your earthly needs too. “ The salt of the Spirit shall make your life saltier and the light of God shall enlighten your life so. ” ~ Frank Savi The Holy Spirit can enlighten even the darkest room, and so when we feel surrounded by darkness and negativity, we get to shine even brighter. “ You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. ” ~ Matthew 5:14-16 As followers of Jesus, we are not allowing this world to shut down our light. We aren’t meant indeed to fit and die in this society, but to stand out as the great winners we are in Him. With God we can make the best of each day by living in the present moments and without overthinking about the future. Every day is a blessing, every morning a fresh start and opportunity to apply what we learn and practice what we preach. Even if everything seems lost and every door closed, God can still surprise us unlocking bigger opportunities. When the time and season will be right, thanks to our constant faith and assured of the outcoming blessings, we’ll be ready to make our big move. God can open doors no man can shut; thereby we shouldn’t rely only on our own strength and resources because unless the Lord wants it, we will labor in vain. If we are willing to follow Him, He’ll make a way even where there isn’t. His blessings are free for everyone and our life can be overflowing with them. In fact, God has given us different gifts and He wants to bless us always more. Blessings can also be intended as the rewards for our endurance in the struggles of life, a popular saying indeed is to be ‘blessed even when stressed’. Some of them can be disguised and hidden even in the worst circumstances: what may look as a curse could turn into an extraordinary blessing. For Jesus, the curse of the cross became the doorway to heaven and eternal life; so, I learned to bear my cross and keep going, assured of the final prize. God has always something better in mind; however, while it’s easy to praise Him when everything is good and we have what we need, the real challenge is to be grateful also when we don’t because His love is all we need. Don’t hide from the Lord as He’s the only one who knows our heart and its desires; if we dwell and delight in His presence, He will bless us more and more. Staying blessed is not only the key to survive but also to win in life, rejecting all the lies that unfortunately surround us. Have confidence in the Lord, surrender to Him and you will prosper like a mighty tree: struck by weather but with green leaves and good fruits. Faith is not an option if we want to live a life of purpose and significance. Be a Christian must be proved day by day, either through joy or pain. In this life everyone will experience sufferings, but since our battles have already been won by Jesus, we can be unstoppable because we are never fighting alone. “ I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. ” ~ John 16:33 Despite we disobey God, He still love us. Today we have the chance to repent and turn to Him. Choose your side: Satan is the prince of this world, Jesus is King. Don’t fall in the society trap and all its lies; even if everyone is doing it, wrong is never right. “ At one time you were dead because of your sins. You followed the sinful ways of the world and obeyed the leader of the power of darkness. He is the devil who is now working in the people who do not obey God. ” ~ Ephesians 2:1-2 Final Considerations “ Our life is like a sailboat on a rough river. If we choose to follow the wind flow we’ll soon get to the island, but if we go against it the boat can be damaged and delay our arrival. The boat is us, the flow God’s plan for our life, the island His promise. ” ~ Frank Savi _ Our small journey has ended… however, this is not the end but just the beginning. After this story you may have many questions and expectations, but I’ll tell you one secret: ask God first, talk to Him, you’re not talking to some president but to the Almighty King of all creation! Put Him first in everything you do, don’t expect nothing but His perfect and unconditional love. “ And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow; not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below; indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. ” ~ Romans 8:38-39 Don’t take your heart away from God, you were created to stay close to Him and enjoy His most valuable gift: your life. Life is precious and can be beautiful only if we want to, so let’s be God’s masterpiece. Be the best version of yourself and share your blessings, spread the Gospel and the love to this needing world. Don’t settle for mediocrity and don’t accept society compromises. Dare to dream, and pray big! Miracles happen every day when prayer become our lifestyle, time spent with God is never wasted but always worth it. So, are you willing to follow God? It’s yes or no, there is no maybe. If you are struggling and unhappy, have hope and faith! Follow God even in the midst of chaos, focus on Jesus and not the storm because He’s the good shepherd and if we follow His steps we’ll not stumble on the way. The best view comes after the hardest climb and one day you will say: it wasn’t easy, but we made it together. Kindly, Frank Prayer Father, I put full trust in Your perfect will. I pray You will make me understand my purpose and being closer to You through Your Son, Jesus. I pray You will full support my good desires and dreams aligned with Yours. I pray You will bring them to realization through the Holy Spirit that strengthens me. Please fill me with enough faith to say ‘yes’ to Your plan for my life. Francesco Savonarola Gentile known as Frank Savi is a class ’95 emerging artist of Italian origins. ‘’ Life is art, so search beauty in everything. ’’ ~ Frank Savi Contacts Email: [email protected] Instagram: @franksavi