Through the Eyes of Christ
I bought a book the other day by John Piper called "When the Darkness Will Not Lift." So far I have read the introduction, which is not much, but there is a truth that is burning in my heart that I feel an urgency to write about. Over the past couple of days God had been working in my heart about a few things and giving me wisdom and confirmation about things through a few close friends. Often times I get so caught up in my emotions and it takes encouragement from friends who are willing to give me truth outside of what I feel. So I took some time to step back and examine my heart again. What I found was God's grace. When I allow my emotions to cloud my view I am forgetting the only truth that matters, which is that Christ loves me and the work He is and has done in me. I forget His grace.
So what I would like to write about is the way we view ourselves and others, and how it directly affects our willingness to walk in His will. Christ has called me to love. He has called me to love Him and to love people. He has called me to pursue truth, to walk in faith, to encourage, to uplift, to be evidence of His grace. The way I see myself and others determines my ability to do any of these things.
Let me explain what I mean. I am flawed. I make mistakes and I fall miserably short everyday. I do not deny any of these things. I am aware of how incredibly human I am. But, when all I see when I look at myself and other people is my own sin and shortcomings, I am not only viewing myself and them in a bad way, but I am completely missing the beauty of God's grace. There was a time when my self-image and worth was defined by my failures and regrets. This also meant that certain people who reminded me of those failures were people that I tried my hardest to completely remove from my life. Here's the thing though, until I found myself face to face with God and I was willing to confront those issues in my heart my perspective never would have changed. Not only was I missing the beauty of God's redemption and love because of my own flawed sight, but I was doing those people an injustice by labeling them because of my own sin. I was not only choosing to ignore the grace that God had given me but also the very same grace that He has given them.
There are times when God needs us to confront the very things we are scared of before he can come in and restore those places. Of course it isn't easy. Sure, we can all accept that we fail and that we sin, but we sometimes can't accept the fact that Christ has forgiven us and made us new. So instead we just walk around dealing with the same issues over and over again because we never dealt with our hearts and we never truly accepted God's grace. We try and change our outward appearances and create social status hoping that if maybe everything looks good on the outside no one will see the ugliness on the inside. We become lovers of everything material and completely ignore the things that really matter.
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[1 Samuel 16:7]
"But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
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When we see ourselves through our own eyes and not through the eyes of Christ we will never walk in freedom. Here is a bit of encouragement. Your righteousness doesn't come from anything you do! Nothing you have done in your past will ever make you less righteous. Nothing you do that is good will ever make you more righteous. Your righteousness comes from Jesus. Only Him. So stop viewing yourself in such a way that your actions determine your righteousness. All that will do is lead you to a place that lacks joy and peace and a place where your heart is not completely surrendered. Take the time to deal with your issues. Repent if that is what you have to do, but then accept God's grace. He gives it freely.
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[Romans 6:18]
"You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."
[2 Corinthians 5:17-21]
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
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I am a woman the fails everyday. I have not arrived. I never will. There are still millions of things that I need to work on. But, I am also a woman of God. I am a woman of faith and virtue. I am a woman that has been redeemed. My life is a testimony of God's grace. When I see myself I don't see the bad, I just see how good God is.
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[1 Peter 2:9]
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.."
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When we see how good God is and take our eyes off of ourselves we can actually love Him and people. We can be people of faith. We can be encouragers. We can be a people of prayer and lovers of the Word.
Forget about your style and your talents. Forget about everything that isn't about God. Never take your eyes off of Him. Never forget His grace. Never forget His goodness. Live in freedom from your own perceptions. Accept His grace.
Just be with Jesus.