Imagine for a moment that you are on a business lunch with your boss and the company manager. As you sit down to eat, you order your favorite entrée, with a side salad to start off your meal. After you have eaten your salad, meal, and of course, dessert, you slip away to use the restroom. Then, it happens. As you look in the mirror, you realize that there is a huge piece of broccoli stuck right in between two of your teeth! You are mortified! You know that your boss and supervisor have been staring at it the entire meal. You lean up to the mirror to get a closer look, put your finger up to your teeth, and then walk away, leaving the hideous substance in its place.
How ridiculous would that be? To know that something embarrassing was stuck in your teeth and walking away as if nothing was there?
Many times, however, this is how we approach our Christian lives. We look into the mirror of God’s word and see the sin that is staining our lives and walk away as if we have no knowledge of it. When God shows us the sins in our lives, it only makes sense to deal with the problem. No one would knowingly leave something in their teeth, and we shouldn’t knowingly leave sin in our lives.
James states, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only
fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in the mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. “James 1:22-25
God’s Word is like a mirror. He chooses the mirror analogy because we are used to that. We look at ourselves in the mirror multiple times a day. Every time we look in the mirror, we are basically evaluating ourselves. We are looking to see if there is anything we need to adjust before leaving the mirror. Scripture is the same. Just as a mirror shows us what we look like on the outside, the Word shows us the condition of our heart on the inside.
James lists two different interactions with the Word. The first person comes to the mirror/Word and takes a casual glance. He states that we forget what we look like. This is the person who sees the broccoli in their teeth and walks away and leaves it. The second person looks very carefully into the mirror/Word and then takes action based on what is seen. A casual glance into the Word is not enough for life change. We have to look carefully into the Word and then the most important part is to take action or make change based on what has been revealed to us.
So, what’s your status when you’ve looked into the spiritual mirror? Has God revealed things to you regarding sin in your life, shortcomings, hypocrisy, or complacency? And what have you done about those observations? Or maybe you might say that it’s been a long time since you carefully looked into your spiritual mirror to see where God was wanting to work on you?
Adrian Rogers says, “Do you want to be a great Christian? God’s given you a mirror. Each morning, look in there and see what you look like. If you’ve got a dirty face, get clean and then continue to read: not only to see yourself but see your Savior.”
This blog was written by Amy Carrico, author of Making the Moments Matter Blog.
Last Updated on February 17, 2024
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