Have We Looked in the Mirror?

When I look in a mirror, I still mentally expect to see the person I was when I was in college. Today, I am a lot heavier and more out of shape than I was then. Why is it that I can’t seem to see who I really am? Isaiah, in chapter 59, reminds God’s people that they do the same things. Isaiah 59:1-3, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.” The issues that we may have in our relationship with God do not rest on God being unfair, too strict, or uncaring. God is not unable to rescue us from any harm and there is not a prayer that we have uttered that He does not hear. So, what stands in the way of a beautiful relationship with God? We do... or more correctly, our sin does. If God did not look at his own son when He took on the sins of the whole world (Jesus: My God, My God, why have You forsaken me), why do we think that our sin would be any less offensive to Him? It is our sins, our guilt, our lies, and the wickedness of our hearts that create a barrier between us and God. God is waiting for us to humble our hearts before Him and confess our sins and rebellion. His desire is to restore His people. Actually, the end of Isaiah 59 we read, “‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord. ‘My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,’ says the Lord.” That means there is hope. Thank God that He sent His Son to restore our relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. Just like in Isaiah’s day, our hearts still have the desire to be rebellious, and without repentance, without a broken and contrite heart, without true surrender, we will not experience the intimacy that God desires with His people. There is nothing magical or exclusive in what God offers. John 1, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Father, Give us such a deep faith that our pride and earthly desires gave way to a genuine faith in You. Amen