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Sometimes a closer look is needed

The Lord blessed me with pretty good skin genes.

For most of my teens and a good portion of my adult life I used Noxema morning and night to cleanse and pretty much nothing else to moisturize.

In my 40’s I started noticing some…uh….wear and tear so I upped my game and moved on to a cleansing and moisturizing product with a little more oomph.

And I felt pretty good about the whole thing considering I take after my mom in that department and she was doing pretty good 39 years farther down the road than me and was still on the Noxema plan.

Until we stayed in a hotel one time that had a super duper magnifying mirror and I got up close and personal with the topography and landscape of my face.

Some of the nooks and crannies had definite signs of blemishes, patches where makeup had built up and scaly dry places.

What I thought was a nice clean face needed some serious deep cleaning help.

And what I thought was well-tended was parched.

My soul can get like that.

On the surface, it looks ok… pretty good for my age and maturity level.

But God’s Word is a magnifying glass.

I open it or listen to a solid teaching on it…and suddenly I am aware of the little things that are hidden from most but not from the Most High.

It’s why I go to church and why I do morning devotions.

It’s why I continue to read and reread Scripture in different translations and ponder the footnotes and pray the passages.

It’s why I do Bible Studies and journal my thoughts before His Presence.

As we read God’s Word, hear God’s Word, apply God’s Word…we are making Him magnified in our life…and that is when we begin to see ourselves for who we are.

A couple of quotes come to mind on this…

God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.   There are several who are credited with versions of this same thought, but this one is from Max Lucado

and

For the Word of God is living and active.

Sharper than any double-edged sword,

it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,

joints and marrow;

it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Hebrews 4:12-13

It is when I magnify God’s Word and look deeply into it that I begin to see my own thoughts, motives, attitudes more clearly in His Light of Truth.

And I am thankful that when those blemishes and scales, wrinkles and flaws are exposed…

when I point them out to Him who has already seen them and loves me still..

He is faithful and merciful to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

I hope as we see so much ungodliness in the world around us we are not forgetting to examine our own selves first and foremost in the mirror of God’s Word and allowing His cleansing to renew us more and more into His image.

The washing and renewing are in His hands…are we not highly blessed?

 

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