What do you see when you look at someone. Typically, when we look at people, whether we know them or not, we see their appearance (face, body, clothing, etc...) Just as when we look at anything else, we see the outside. All mind and soul function are hidden from our eyes. People are complex. They can hurt us, comfort us, encourage us, lie to us, manipulate us, show emotion, and a vast array of other things...some good and some sinful. How wonderful to be created with so many different attributes! Now, we can know a person as we spend time with them and see the overflow of their heart in their actions and words, but this usually refers to a small, tight knit group of people we would call friends. At face value, we see a 'picture' of a person...a picture void of soul truth. So, what does God see when he looks at us?
Our God is magnificently all powerful and all knowing and all seeing...when God looks at us, he sees our sin. Every sin: past, present, and future...God sees the heart, therefore God sees your sin. "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." 1Samuel16:7. I love the poetic phrasing in Isaiah64:6:
"All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away."
"Well, great," you say...when God looks at us He sees filthy rags! But that's not the end of the story, my friends! This verse in Isaiah comes from the Old Testament, and though in our New Testament times God still sees the heart and still sees our sin (for He is UNchanging!), we have great hope! See 1John1:7:
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,we have fellowship with one another,and the blood of Jesus, his Son,purifies us from all sin."
"The blood of Jesus PURIFIES us from all sin!" What a blessing! And, what a relief! God sees all...and because of our sin we were separated from him...enter Jesus! God sent His only son to die the worst death so that IF we accept this gift and allow Jesus to rule over our hearts, our sins are washed away! We are made clean! God no longer LOOKS at our sin (though He can still SEE it ALL), now he LOOKS at Christ, and welcomes us...no longer separated! There is NO GREATER love than this!
This past week I have struggled with an idol I have created...All the while I could hear that 'still small voice' (the Holy Spirit) call to me, pleading with me to turn away from this idol that was causing me to take my eyes off God, and I ignored it...I kept on in my sin, enjoying the pleasure it brought me (forget that it left me feeling guilty and alone at the end of the day). I tried to excuse it away, tried to tell myself "It's not really a sin...I'm not hurting anybody...I'll turn back tomorrow..." feeding myself lies, giving Satan room to redecorate my heart. It doesn't take long for Satan to see the smallest window of opportunity in our heart, the smallest turning away and rejection of God becomes Satan's widest opening...he swoops in and begins to redecorate our hearts and our lives and before we can see what's happened, we are knee deep in a sin we had no business giving our life to. Hallelujah, God has sent Jesus to save us! AS SOON AS we repent of our sin and turn back to God, we are made new. We are cleansed. God welcomes us back with loving open arms! Of course, it's not easy to drop the sin or tear down the idol...but God gives us grace and time to work at it, knowing full well if and when we will falter again. And, dear one, He's already agreed to take you back, pick you up, brush you off and clean you up when that happens! BEST of all, we don't need to do anything! We don't need to tear down those idols on our own. We don't need to purge our lives of that sin by ourselves! If we ALLOW God to work, HE will do it WITH us! What beautiful truth!
Remember, brothers and sisters, no matter how deep we dig ourselves into a sin, God is ALWAYS there to pull us out and help us fill in the sin-hole with
Jesus!
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