The Man in the Mirror

A few years ago Marshall and I had the privilege of traveling to Sydney, Australia.  We  arrived at our hotel in Sydney absolutely exhausted after the 15 hour flight from Los Angeles. Without even unpacking we headed to bed in hopes of getting a good night's sleep before beginning sight seeing the next day.  Sometime in the night my exhausted, confused and jet lagged husband got up to go to the bathroom.  He tried to orient himself to the unfamiliar environment, but as he approached the bathroom door he suddenly let out a loud shout.  I sat straight up in the bed and saw him standing in front of the mirror on the outside of the bathroom door. In his confusion he mistook his own reflection for that of someone else and was initially afraid that we were not alone in the room and that he was going to have to 'take on' our would be attacker.   He didn't even recognize his own image reflected in the glass. 

Scripture speaks about a man that looks in a mirror and then walks away and forgets what he looks like.

"Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself goes away immediately and forgets what he looks like.  But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this-not forgetting what he has heard but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does,"                                                           James 1:22-25

As we listen to God's Word taught or we study it for ourselves, we are going to have one of two responses.  Our response with either be to  let that Word infiltrate our very being and change our behavior and attitudes  or we will walk away completely unchanged.  So often we become 'good Bible study girls' -we spend some time in the Word, we may  know some facts about scripture and we may  even have memorized some Bible verses here and there, but the Word has not transformed us as God intended .  We are like the man who looks at himself in the mirror and then goes away and forgets what he looks like.

Just as that piece of glass reflects  our outward appearance-God's Word shows us what the outward appearance is suppose to be, but then goes even further and shows us how our  heart is to look. God wants His Word to transform our outward actions and our inward thoughts.  Scripture  is not just a collection of human ideas about God.

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."                                         2 Timothy 3:16-17

Scripture is God's direct revelation to us about who He is and how we are to live. Far to often we treat reading and studying God's Word as just another thing to check off our 'to do list'  during the day.  Maybe we don't even spend time in it every day.   It is through His Word that we are trained in righteousness.  It is the tool that He uses to conform our hearts and minds into that which is pleasing to Him.

In a recent podcast Kay Arthur, a Christian speaker and writer, indicated concern for those who have a disregard for the Word.  She said, "Do you love the Word or God?  If you don't love the Word of God,if you're not drawn to the Word of God, if the Word of God does not speak to you when you open it-then I would check out my salvation.  If Christ is in you then he puts in you a hunger and a thirst for righteousness-a desire to know God.  That is a gift of God when the Holy Spirit moves inside you."   As believers we should continually thirst for righteousness and scripture tells us in the passage above that God's Word is an instrument that He uses to train us in that righteousness.

Let's don't be like the man that walks away and forgets what he looks like.  Instead lets  look intently into the Word of God and let Him work His transforming power in us.