It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted on here, but I’m always working in the background. I read the Bible each day or at least read a devotional or watch a devotional message or listen to one online. From what I read or hear or think about I take notes and write my own thoughts in a notebook I keep. Those notes don’t make it onto this blog often enough. So here’s some thoughts.

From one of my most favorite preachers this message comes from Pastor Steven Furtick’s message, “Make Him Your Mirror”.

“My question is, ‘Why would you choose to see yourself through the eyes of your enemy? Why would you give your enemy a mirror to show you who you are?’

“We do this all the time. We pick the worst possible thing about ourselves — the things that we can’t change, the things that we don’t like — and we use that as a mirror that we look at to try to get a good sense of who we are. And we lower our ambitions to the level of our worst tendency. And we forget that we are made in the image of God because we are too busy looking at our lives through the eyes of our enemy.”

Recently I ran across a conversation thread online following a man’s video testimony about an experience he had as a pastor of the church he was preaching to at the time of the video. He set the context by reminding the church about the loss of his wife about three years prior. He was devastated, he reminded them, and he was told by many that he should take a break and step back from the church and maybe not worry about pastoring while he grieves. He did listen to this advice and he did step back a little bit but he didn’t feel right about it and he felt called by God to get right back in it and preach the Word so that is what he did.

One day when there was no service going on and he was working in the church a man entered and when asked if he needed any help the man told the pastor that he didn’t want to be talked to or preached at or converted and he didn’t want to talk either. So the pastor left him alone but told him that if he needed anything he would be right around the corner.

When the pastor noticed that the man had moved into the center of the sanctuary and was on his knees, crying, and held his hands out towards the cross, pastor put his hand on the man’s shoulder. He said, ‘I know you said you didn’t want any help and didn’t want to talk but clearly you need something.’

The man put his arms back down and shot an angry look at Pastor, ‘I just lost my wife, and she left me with two kids. How can you possibly help me with that?’

The pastor replied that he may know a little more about that than the man thought. He then proceeded to tell the man about his own wife and kids and they bonded and cried with each other.

The pastor told his church that he was meant to be there in that church. He was meant to be there when that man came in seeking solace from pain and grief and suffering, and he needed Jesus. He urged the church that when the Holy Spirit calls on them they need to listen and to not refuse to follow the spirit.

We can be influenced by people in our daily lives. We can be influenced by so many voices we hear out in the world as well as in our own heads. But which of those voices is God’s? We need to be listening to God’s voice.

When we are thankful, when we pray regularly and with earnestness, when we praise God, when we worship God, when we call to Him, when we open our hearts to Him, when we love our neighbors, when we help others, when we show up to do our best that is when we are close to God. That show we will know God’s voice. We will hear God’s voice over the “noise” of the world when we are close to Him. Turn towards Him and He will move closer to you.

Make God your mirror. Listen to His voice. So many other voices are telling you that YOU are what’s important and that what YOU want to do and what makes YOU happy and what makes YOU feel good is all that is important. Follow YOUR heart. Follow YOUR dreams. You do YOU! That is what the world tells you to do. That is also what Satan tells you to do. If Satan can get you to put yourself and your own feelings and wants and desires over God then he can succeed in keeping you from living in God’s light. He can keep you from walking into your calling.

Make God your mirror. Reflect HIS light. You were made in His image. In His light you are made strong. In His light you are made righteous and holy. In His light you are made whole.

This lesson is one I need to due to myself everyday to learn. Yes, God is all-powerful! Yes, God is all-knowing! Yes, God is all-present! Yes, God is all good! Yes, God is holy! But I am also made in His image. My God is also my mirror.