Peering In The Mirror
By Aaron Beard

Hanging on the wall in the bathrooms and bedrooms of most Americans is a large mirror.  When we wake up in the morning, one of the first things we do is to look into one of these mirrors.  This can be a very frightening experience.  It can be amazing how much change we undergo in our physical appearance while asleep.  Almost immediately, we do something about our "rough" appearance.  It would be ridiculous for someone to see his appearance needs attention, but walk away and do nothing about it.  While we find this absurd with our physical appearance, we often do the same thing with our "rough" spiritual appearance.

James tells us that it is not enough to just hear the word of God.  We have to make its application to our lives.  He describes the man who hears and does not apply it as being "like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was." (James 1:23-24).

The word of God is a perfect mirror for our spiritual lives.  God left us His word so his children could look into it and see where they stand before God.  James continues to say, "But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a dooer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:25).  When we look into His word and see there are changes that we ought to make, we cannot just casually walk away.  Do not be deceived, just walking away fixes your spiritual appearance just as much as it fixes your physical appearance.  This solves none of our problems; they are still there.  It takes a sincere and humble heart to admit there are problems and to take action against them.

I Peter 1:22-23 tells us that we are born again through the word of God which comes to us through His Spirit.  It is the Spirit who has revealed God's word, our spiritual mirror, to us.  "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16).  When we look into God's mirror we measure reflection against that which the Spirit reveals.  His Spirit is thus bearing witness with our spirit.  When this happens, do we reflect children of God?  If so, we are told in verse 17 that we are "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ..."

We need to take a long look into the word of God and see where we are in our quest for becoming spiritually perfect.  Do we see a man that needs to be "groomed?"  We never reach a state of perfection while here on this earth, but it is certainly the goal toward which we must strive.  There will always be something in our spiritual lives on which we need to work.  Do we work on those things or do we just walk away, forgetting what kind of person we are?

-- Aaron Beard