Seeing Yourself Through God's Eyes (7 page)
Read Seeing Yourself Through God's Eyes Online
Authors: June Hunt
Sin destroys our harmonious relationship with God. It causes our hearts to be hostile toward Him. In reconciling us to Himself, the Father changes our “enemy” hearts so we can enjoy friendship with Him.
No other Bible story portrays God’s heart of reconciliation more perfectly than that of the prodigal son, often called the most beautiful short story ever written. In Luke chapter 15, an ungrateful young son demands and receives his inheritance from his loving father. After quickly wasting his fortune, he awakens one day in the gutter. Friends and money gone, he finds a job feeding pigs—the most disgraceful job a Jewish boy could have! Finally, coming to his senses, he realizes his unworthiness and heads home, hoping only to be hired as a servant. But can he go home?
What a perfect setup for a father to say, “I told you so!” But not this father. Instead, upon seeing his wayward son in the distance, he is filled with compassion and runs to embrace the broken, repentant prodigal, exclaiming, “This son of mine was dead and is alive again” (Luke 15:24).
Do you realize your compassionate Father is waiting with open arms for your heart to be changed toward Him? What joy floods His heart the day you are reconciled to Him. Seeing yourself through God’s eyes, you now enjoy warm friendship with God.
I’ve wandered far away from God, now I’m coming home; The paths of sin too long I’ve trod, Lord, I’m coming home. Coming home, coming home, never more to roam, Open wide Thine arms of love, Lord, I’m coming home.
11
Personalize these verses in your own words:
Romans 5:10
Colossians 1:22
Father, through Your eyes I can see that I…
I have confidence because…I am reconciled to God.
“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the L
ORD
will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”
(I
SAIAH
40:29-31).
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you”
(E
ZEKIEL
36:26).
M
any years ago, a friend brought me a clock from Switzerland. It was cleverly designed with a little bird that peeked out of its tiny house. But the clock wasn’t very useful—it didn’t keep the time correctly. It would “cuckoo” when it wasn’t supposed to! Because I loved the clock, I took it to be repaired. The clocksmith examined the inside of my cherished gift and said it needed a new mainspring. Laughingly, he told me, “Your clock needs a new heart!”
This is true for more than clocks. Every
person
needs a new heart. Just look around you. How many parents have intentionally trained their children to lie, or encouraged them to steal from another child, or to yell at another, or to hit another? Very few, if any. Yet how many children have lied, stolen, yelled at, and hit others? All have. Why? Because their hearts have been self-seeking and self-centered from birth.
According to the Word of God, you were born with a sinful nature. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” And Jeremiah 17:9 adds, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”
But the good news is that God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.” When you come into a genuine relationship with Christ, God puts a new heart inside you.
Your need is very similar to the need of someone who has a diseased heart and whose only hope for life is a heart transplant. In a spiritual sense, God takes your “diseased” heart and replaces it with a new one.
After this divine transplant, healing begins and, as promised, over time your new heart becomes capable of perfect love. Your self-centeredness is now Christ-centeredness. There is healing to replace the hatred; there is a balm for bitterness. You can face the world with a freedom and a future you have never known before.
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Once you have a changed heart, you have a changed life. Seeing yourself through God’s eyes, you can love the unlovable, be kind to the unkind, and forgive the unforgivable. All this because you have a new heart—God’s heart.
Personalize these verses in your own words:
1 Timothy 1:5
2 Timothy 2:22
Father, through Your eyes I can see that I…
I have worth because…I am given a new heart by God.
“We have…received…the Spirit who is from God”
(1 C
ORINTHIANS
2:12).
A
n unexpected blackout took my neighborhood by surprise. One minute the lights were on, the next they were off. In total darkness, I inched my way to the bedside table and fumbled for the flashlight. Finding it, I flipped the switch. What frustration…the flashlight didn’t work! How useless—a flashlight that didn’t function.
Just as dysfunctional…just as unproductive…is the person who is not operating in the power of the Spirit. God has given each believer meaningful work to do, but it is to be done in
His strength,
by
His Spirit.
Many people rely totally on their own human abilities for power in their lives, whereas Zechariah 4:6 says it is “‘not by might nor by power but by my Spirit,’ says the L
ORD
Almighty.”
Likewise, many others simply don’t know much about the Spirit of God, even though they are very familiar with Jesus and the heavenly Father. Yet the Bible has much to say about the role of the Holy Spirit. Specifically, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). What a blessing! And “the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Think about it—those are huge benefits! Trying to serve God in our own strength is just as futile as trying to light our path with a dysfunctional flashlight.
Everyone knows the frustration of wandering in the dark.
Where do I go? What should I do? How am I to think?
When you are saved, you are also “marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit comes in to be the illuminator of your life and enlightens your path into the future.
Because He knows all—past, present, and future—He is the perfect guide for your life. “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). How? Your own personal counselor, conscience, and comforter fills your soul (mind, will, and emotions) with perfect truth. He teaches your mind, directs your will, and controls your emotions.
Like a flashlight, you were designed to shine, but you can never shine in your own power. The Holy Spirit, filling your human spirit, provides the power to produce the light. As you live dependent upon that power, you will shine as you were intended to…as a beautiful reflection of Christ Himself.
Realize, in God’s eyes, you could never be useless when you have the privilege of such an intimate relationship with Him! “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).
Personalize these verses in your own words:
John 14:16
1 Corinthians 6:19
Father, through Your eyes I can see that I…
I have worth because…I am given the Holy Spirit.
I Am Given Everything I Need by God
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness”
(2 P
ETER
1:3).
M
any years ago after opening my first bank account, I remember feeling really awkward. I was given a book of checks but didn’t know how to use them! How embarrassing to have money in the bank and yet not know how to get it out.
I quickly learned, and not wanting my two younger sisters to experience this same confusion, I went to our neighborhood bank and opened checking accounts for each of them. I can still remember the exhilaration I felt as I made deposits in their names to accounts they hadn’t even heard about, hadn’t earned, and hadn’t expected. Then I told them what I had done and taught them how to draw from their resources in the bank.
What heightened joy the heavenly Father must feel when He opens your personal account in His bank, the “Blessing Bank.” Open 24 hours a day, this bank offers unlimited blessings and unlimited withdrawals.
Do you realize you actually have a spiritual bank account? The moment you become a child of God, He establishes your personal account with deposits vastly beyond your ability to exhaust. You are given every resource you will ever need to reflect the character of God within your life.
One major oversight committed by God’s children is they don’t open their bankbooks often enough to see the balance of their deposits. In reality, your bankbook, the Bible, discloses your personal assets in great detail. Are you troubled? Romans 5:1 shows your deposit of peace. Are you weak? Philippians 4:13 reveals your deposit of strength. The entry in 2 Corinthians 5:5 indicates that God “has given us the Spirit as a deposit.” And what a deposit…what a limitless reservoir of resources—God inside of us reproducing His life outside of us!
Do you feel angry? Do you need patience? Open your heart to the Spirit, and check the specific scriptures and promises He has deposited in your account to meet your needs. His presence accrues incredible interest. Galatians 5:22-23 declares that the fruit of the Spirit yields “love, joy, peace, patience…and self-control” and is available for immediate withdrawal.
Are you spiritually bankrupt? Nothing would delight God more than for you to be “cashing your checks.” Seeing yourself through God’s eyes, you see His divine power has given you everything you need for life and godliness. You can bank on it!
Personalize these verses in your own words:
Ephesians 1:3
2 Corinthians 9:8
Father, through Your eyes I can see that I…
I have worth because…I am given everything I need by God.
“The L
ORD
gives strength to his people”
(P
SALM
29:11).
F
or thousands of years a club has been in existence offering memberships throughout the world. It’s a popular club, a prolific club. It’s the “I Can’t Club.”
Under the bylaws, club members are required to make “I can’t” statements with conviction: “I can’t help but hate him after what he’s done to me.” “I can’t quit this sin.” “I can’t forgive again!” Such fervor makes it sound as if each “I can’t” statement is an unchangeable, universal law.
If you’re a member, your pledge echoes the club’s premise: No one can win over sin. You believe its promise: Defeat is normal. And you promote its purpose: to fill each mind with futility.
One law of science to which everyone is subject is the law of gravity—the force that pulls every object toward the center of the earth. Likewise, the members of the “I Can’t Club” are prisoners to the downward pull of defeat. They are not only ground-bound, but also sin-bound.
Do you feel bound to a specific sin? Does quitting the “I Can’t Club” seem impossible? As a child of God, the word
can’t
doesn’t have to control your life. Upon your salvation, He gives you the Spirit of God so that you will have the strength of God. He deals a deathblow to the “I Can’t Club.” He makes it possible for you to overcome any sin. How? By replacing one law for another: “The law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).