Seeing yourself the way others see you isn't always pretty... Let me speak for myself: seeing myself the way others see me (or, the way I really am) isn't pretty. I think I know who I want to be, the things I try to be, the person I want to be--but that doesn't necessarily match reality. It's like wanting to draw a self-portrait like daVinci and ending up with da preschool. Embarrassing. Humiliating. Sad.
Reality is that way. Sometimes life is really, really good. Sometimes life is really, really hard. Sometimes life just...is.
When it's an issue of sin, God's Word tells me to confess and forsake it: selfishness, pride, covetousness, anger, fear, worry. If others are involved, I need to go to them and ask for their forgiveness. God wants me to see it. He will help me change, and He faithfully convicts me of sin because He loves me. If not meeting a desired reality is more about not being liked, however, that in itself is a pride problem. My heart is more concerned with the approval of others than the approval of God. Fear of others has to be addressed before I can move down the road of getting things right.
That's why knowing God and His grace is so necessary. Because God gave His only Son, Jesus, to die for my sin, I have confidence that He is working out everything else in my life for a good purpose--a better purpose than I might see or recognize. And because He is God, He uses hard things, evil things, even my sin, for His glory. I don't know how. I don't get it. I don't even like it. But I can trust Him to do His good work (in spite of me).
Some days, that's what I cling to. Most days, it affects my thoughts, emotions, and actions. God is good. He is sovereign. He is loving, kind, gracious, gentle, patient, and faithful. I am not. Yet. With His help, we're working on it.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Reality is that way. Sometimes life is really, really good. Sometimes life is really, really hard. Sometimes life just...is.
When it's an issue of sin, God's Word tells me to confess and forsake it: selfishness, pride, covetousness, anger, fear, worry. If others are involved, I need to go to them and ask for their forgiveness. God wants me to see it. He will help me change, and He faithfully convicts me of sin because He loves me. If not meeting a desired reality is more about not being liked, however, that in itself is a pride problem. My heart is more concerned with the approval of others than the approval of God. Fear of others has to be addressed before I can move down the road of getting things right.
That's why knowing God and His grace is so necessary. Because God gave His only Son, Jesus, to die for my sin, I have confidence that He is working out everything else in my life for a good purpose--a better purpose than I might see or recognize. And because He is God, He uses hard things, evil things, even my sin, for His glory. I don't know how. I don't get it. I don't even like it. But I can trust Him to do His good work (in spite of me).
Some days, that's what I cling to. Most days, it affects my thoughts, emotions, and actions. God is good. He is sovereign. He is loving, kind, gracious, gentle, patient, and faithful. I am not. Yet. With His help, we're working on it.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
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