MAN IN THE MIRROR

“A hearer of the word and not a doer” James 1:23

Your Bible is a mirror that shows you what you really look like in God’s eyes: “If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” James 1:23 – 24.  This word “man” is the Greek word for a male, so we are talking about the way men use the mirror.  They glance just long enough to get the basics done – then they are gone.  But not women.  They are so intent on knowing how they look that they carry a mirror in their purse.  They can find out any time of the day how they look.  The point here is not the difference in the way men and women use a mirror, but the difference between taking a quick glance at yourself and hanging out in front of the mirror until you have fully seen who you are in God’s eyes.

As we read God’s Word the Holy Spirit holds up a mirror before us.  He wants us to see ourselves so that we can make whatever adjustments are necessary.  James continues: “One who looks intently at the perfect law, the Word of God, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” James 1:25.  In what area of your life do you desire a greater measure of God’s blessing?  Take care of the “doing” and God will take care of the “blessing”.

Paul writes, “We all…beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image” 2 Co 3:18. A mirror is a reflector.  And the more time you spend in God’s Word, the more you will begin to reflect your Heavenly Father’s likeness.

Now, this is no overnight change, and it does not happen by just grabbing a Bible verse here and there, or skimming through a passage.  No, it calls for soaking yourself in the Scriptures until the Holy Spirit connects with your spirit and produces the nature and ways of Christ in you.  Jesus said, “If you have ever left dishes in a sink until the food has dried on, you know those dishes need to “abide” in some hot, soapy water so that all the junk can be removed.  We need to soak our minds in God’s Word until the junk that James calls “all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness” James 1:21 begins to melt away.  This is not just gross sin, but hardened inner attitudes that keep us from growing in grace.

Our new nature has been “programmed” to want to obey God in much the same way that a calculator is programmed to compute numbers.  All you have to do is feed a calculator the right information to get the right response.  Your new nature has been set up to give you the right response when you feed it with the Word of God.  That is why your enemy will do anything to keep you from spending time in God’s Word.  Do not let him do it!