What do you see?

Have you looked in the mirror lately? Most people do. A mirror helps one examine their outward appearance so that they can help themselves look presentable. If one really cares how they look, and something needs fixing, they more than likely will stand in front of the mirror until it is fixed. The fact is people will go to great lengths to make sure their physical appearance is the way it should be. Unfortunately, not many people truly care about their inward appearance, the part God sees (1 Samuel 16:7; Hebrews 4:13).

So what do we use to look at our heart? What is our spiritual mirror? James 1:23-25 says, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Our mirror is the gospel! It contains guidelines for living a holy life. Therefore, we may use it as a mirror to examine the appearance of our heart. One would normally not look at a physical mirror, see something wrong, walk away, and forget about it. However, many do this spiritually by being a hearer and not a doer. When they read the scriptures and see something wrong, they walk away and forget about it without fixing the problem. However, if we want to be pleasing to God, we must read the scriptures daily to examine ourselves spiritually. If what we see is good, we should strive to continue in it. If not, we should fix it. It’s as simple as that!

Jonathan Glaesemann