“The grace of God is absolute, the salvation of Jesus
is perfect, it is done for ever. I am not being saved, I am saved; salvation is
as eternal as God’s throne; the thing for me to do is to work out what God
works in me. Most of us are much better sterner with others than we are in
regard to ourselves; we make excuses for things in ourselves while we condemn
in others things which we are not naturally inclined.” - Chambers December 5
My Response:
Do you ever find it easier to discern
what someone else should do better than what you should do? How much faster are we to know the path or to give
the answer when it is not us who need to follow or obey. The way seems so clear
– until it is us who are searching for it.
Our vision of the state
of our temple is directly related to
our relationship with Jesus and our willingness to stand before the mirror of
the Holy Spirit.
Imagine you have been instructed to
enter an unknown room and report back the details of what you saw in a mirror.
As you enter the room, you are immediately surrounded by a dark grayness. The
light is so very weak, you almost feel like you are suffocating. You do,
however, notice that on the far wall there is a mirror.
You approach slowly because it is
difficult to maneuver your way around the room because it is so dark. You make
your way to the mirror and stand before it. Your reflection seems distorted and
blurry. You can see a semblance of features, but the dimness has almost altered
your true appearance. No matter how long you stare at your reflection, it is no
use. In fact, the longer you stare at your reflection, the more distorted it
becomes. There is simply not enough light in the room to get a true picture.
You get frustrated and make you way back out of the room.
When asked what details you saw in the
mirror, you hesitate because you weren’t able to see anything specific. You
react in one of three ways:
1. You lie. You fear that others must
have been able to see clearly, and because you must not have given it enough
effort, you failed. You lie because you are afraid and because you are
insecure. You leave the experience feeling ashamed. You never want to return.
2. You get angry. How could anyone
expect you to see anything in that dim room. You did your best. “They” should
have provided more light for you so that you could have been successful. It
wasn’t your fault. Someone else was to blame. You leave feeling self-righteous
and hurt. You never want to return.
Or 3. You are honest. You explain
exactly what happened and how you felt. You ask how it could have gone better
and honestly desire an answer. You spend time communing with the One who has
asked this of you and end up understanding and feeling loved. You can’t wait to
enter the room again knowing that, this time, there will be more than enough
light to see.
To seek out the truth about ourselves,
we need to seek out the Truth.
Father of Light, open my eyes to Your
Truth. Let the standard of Your Word be the mirror through which I see myself
reflected.
Check out: James 1:22-25
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