-Strength for Today- "Who Are You Seeing Being Reflected in the Mirror of Your Life?" - 1 Corinthians 13:12

The Bible describes itself?“as if we’re looking into a mirror.” And those who?“disregard what they see in the mirror,”?or?“what the mirror shows to be wrong,” will continue trying to fix the?“flaws” in their lives,”?as they arise,?“without consulting the Lord,” won’t be blessed.?

???Lamentations 3:40 says,?“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.”?This verse?doesn’t?say,?“Let us search and try our ways,” and?“if there’s?evil found in our make-up,”?then?“turn again to the Lord.”?

??God’s Word is?“the mirror to the soul,” and if we honestly look into it,?“we’ll find ourselves “flawed.”?Because the Word of God shows us for who we really are, in that before Christ we were, “...?dead in trespasses and sins,”?(Ephesians 2:1), and?“...walked in darkness, with blinded eyes,”?1 John 2:11, and even the most generous among us, according to Jesus are nevertheless?“evil” -?Luke 11:13.?

Therefore, we?shouldn’t?“flinch”?when we see our “pre-Christian?selves”?mirrored?with?these?“infamous labels,”?of being?“totally depraved,” and?“spiritually flawed,”?before God. Because when we combine?“the characteristics”?of?“darkness”?and?“light,”?then truly?what?“the Word of God” says to us, when it?“mirrors our fallen nature,”?is always true, and?“it will never lie to us.”??Because it will always give us?“the clearest image” and?“reflection of ourselves.”?like a physical mirror”?it requires light, but in this case?“the light is the light” and “illumination of the Holy Spirit.”?

Therefore, without the illuminated light of the Holy Spirit, fallen man is what he is, and that is?“a ruined temple”?that from the?beginning was?“magnificently imaged after?God -?Genesis, 2:27.?In ourselves, we, re?“spiritually broken,”?and??“miserably?depraved.”?and?“without Jesus Christ”?being “the Repairer of our broken image,”?we’re?hopelessly condemned.?

The picture of humanity?“under sin is a bleak one.” But?beneath the storm clouds of Calvary, where,?“while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”?(Romans 5:8), and?“while we couldn’t escape our depravity,” “while we couldn’t win God’s approval,” while we?couldn’t?avoid condemnation,?the Son of God?“sacrificially?spilt His precious blood”?for?“sinners like you and me.”??

??Our sin should remind us that the love of God never rested on our worthiness, for we had none, other than?“the passionate?worthiness of Jesus Christ.”?You see,?it’s?“the Holy Spirit’s illumination,”?and “our fellowship with Him,” and “our walking with Him,”?that?“makes alive what God’s word says to us and about us.”?So, may the Word of God (the most?perfect mirror) “through the illumination of the Holy Spirit reflect who we truly are, all that has been given to us,”?and?“what we’re becoming according to His grace and Power.”?Amen!?

Amen" Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD

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