Yes, we can look in all directions, but the most important view we should take in living our lives is inside ourselves. That is the place where the truth will be revealed to us. In James 1:23-25 we discover, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”
You probably remember the Wicked Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She was so full of herself, but met her match at her mirror when the mirror revealed the truth:
“Queen: “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”
Magic Mirror: “Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee.”
What the Queen couldn’t see inside herself, the mirror revealed. What can we do to help ourselves understand what is really inside us?
Our spiritual condition is very important in understanding ourselves. In seeking God through His Son and the Holy Spirit, we come closer to understanding who we are and who we should be. We look inside ourselves not to see who we think we are and where we should go, but we look inside ourselves to seek our Creator God.
God can be found inside us. Most times we think that our God is in a faraway place, but as our eternal source and creator, He is always right here with us, inside us. So it seems, our battle is within us. We seek the material and other attractive things in our lives that are outside us in the world, but we refuse to look inward. When we truly look inward we don’t see what we want, we see what God wants for us. He is so close, yet we think of Him as if He is in a faraway place.
We tend to seek all the things we can gain in our lives that we think will make us happy. Whether it’s money, status or pleasures we seek, when our focus is on them, we lose our life as a true child of God. The questions become for us: Can we dare look inside ourselves in order to connect with God’s Spirit? Are we willing to let the outside go and move our search in life toward ourselves?
In Luke 17:20-21 we get this understanding, “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” Can we take this a half step further and claim that we are presently living in Eternal Life?
As we’ve learned, God’s time is not like our time. His clock is not ticking like our clock is ticking. There is no beginning and no end to Him, His Son or His Spirit. God is Eternal and as His created children, we were born into Eternal Life with Him. That’s why we need to look inside ourselves for the secret of life. When we fail to look, we give up our life in Him.
In our moving to an inward look we can take heed of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
No comments:
Post a Comment