Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Face-time with the Mirror

Let’s take a good look at the way we’re living.
Let’s return to the Lord.
Lamentations 3:40 (nirv)

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
When the New Year rolls around, our tendency is to review the past and set goals for the future. There's nothing wrong with that, but what about the here and now?  After all, we don't live in the past or the future.  If we do, that's a great topic for a different post, but today I want to look at the present.

Our focus verse in Lamentations says "Let's take a good look at the way we're (we are) living..."  right now.  In this moment, today, does our behavior and our thoughts reflect someone who is dedicated to living life for the Lord? Or does it more closely resemble living for ourselves or in sync with the way the world lives?

It's easy to fool those around us...to live one way before them and live an entirely different way when we're alone and no one is watching.  It's even easy to fool ourselves sometimes, but the Lord is watching 24/7. He knows our hearts, our attitudes, our thoughts and our coverups. We're not fooling him.

So, this is a perfect time to take a good look at the way we're living.  A little honest face-time in the mirror is in order. Some self-examination, some contemplative knee-time before the Lord, asking His opinion.  But don't just do this at the change of the calendar year. Do it on a continual basis, asking ourselves if the way we're living is leading us closer to the Lord or further away from Him. And if the answer is the latter, then the last part of our focus verse comes into play. "Let's return to the Lord."

Make this an ongoing practice in 2014 and you'll find that you don't stray too far before the Holy Spirit reminds you to turn around and head back to your First Love.

Have a Blessed New Year!


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2 comments:

Unknown said...

How true! It is so easy to see the areas that we believe others need to correct, but we all need some personal, honest face time with the mirror to learn where our own focus should be. Thanks for this reminder Jan.

Jan Christiansen said...

It's funny how when God prompts me to write on a certain subject, it's like I'm writing for others, but halfway through I realize this is subtle way of holding a mirror up to my own face. He doesn't point out my character defects directly, but gently helps me become aware of them so that I can surrender myself to Him all over again...allowing Him to make the necessary changes to make me more like Jesus. Thanks for dropping by, Tresa and for leaving a comment. I love walking this journey with fellow believers/bloggers. :)