Proverbs 16:2
The ways of a man are clean in his own eyes…But God knows the true motives of his heart.
As we move from one year into another, there could never be a better time for us to take a long look in the mirror at ourselves and re-evaluate who we really are, who we want to become, and who we really need to become for ourselves and others. I know that I daily fall short of the man that my heavenly Father expects me to be. Thank God for his mercy and patience upon my life. Only God knows the whole story concerning the details of the “behind the scenes reality”, and the “under the surface” issues with which I persevere on a daily basis. I certainly am a continued work in progress, as are we all!
All of us at one time or another have proclaimed our goodness, our accomplishments, our knowledge, and our capabilities, for a variety of reasons. Maybe, it was just to try to obtain employment…or because someone asked it of us…or maybe in our own defense we spoke up for ourselves. Either way, if we are honest, we all want people to think well of us. We want folks to trust us, because good things usually come our way as a result of this trust. I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing. Trust is what makes the wheels of this world turn in a positive direction. And certainly it is obvious that we should rejoice in our own personal victories, because they cause our future to have a sense of stability, and bring a hope of further achievement and success.
However, there are those that see themselves in this light only, and ignore the other side of their own humanity. A writer once wrote describing this attitude by saying, “He is like a man, who looked at himself in a mirror. Afterward, he went on his way and quickly forgot what manner of man it was that he saw there.” We certainly can fool everyone around us, including our own self, and persuade men of our trustworthiness and goodness. But, we cannot hide what we truly are on the inside from God. Man can only view the outside features of humanity, and trust his recorded history and testimony within the community. However, God has the ability to peer inside the mind and heart of man. He can see the things that man cannot see. Nothing could be more detrimental to our well-being than our ignorance, or straight out denial of our weaknesses. This creates a false sense of pride in ourselves, and a hypocritical attitude towards the rest of humanity, and even God Himself.
It would do all of us a tremendous amount of good, if each and every morning we would get up and immediately go take a long look at ourselves in the mirror…and become humbled by what we see. This way, we could honestly embrace the day, and the rest of humanity, the way that we should...and even more importantly, Almighty God, our creator and redeemer.
No matter what is going on with us, if we can just be honest with God as to exactly where we are in life at this present moment…I promise you that as we move forward, even in our weakness… He is still more than capable of bringing us to places we never dreamed possible!