Looking Into God’s Mirror

It’s audio devo day!

Have you been searching for a way to understand your true worth in God’s sight? In today’s devo we gaze together into the true mirror of God’s Word to find out who we really are! The audio version here comes complete with prayer and ministry time:

(Does this minister to you? Know someone else that needs to hear it today? You can either share today’s blog link with them, or look up my Feeding on Jesus podcast for sharing and subscribing. You’ll find it at these links on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and most other podcast platforms, with episodes identical to these audio devos!)

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Have you ever been to the fair and seen one of those funny mirrors – the ones that distort your reflection? You peer in and your nose is nearly as big as the rest of your face. Or your midsection is three times wider than its real size. Or parts of you sink in on themselves. You are barely recognizable as yourself. My friend, that is a perfect spiritual picture of what happens when we look into the wrong spiritual “mirror;” when we look to the wrong source to reflect back to us who we are.

That source may be a toxic relationship. It may be haunting memories of rejection that we endured during childhood or more recently. Or it may be the deluge of media images flooding us incessantly with unattainable “standards” of beauty. These mirrors announce to us, “You are not skinny enough.” “Your facial features are unbecoming.” “Your shape is wrong.” “You are too gangly.” “You are not sophisticated enough.” “You are uninteresting.” “You are not sexy enough.” And on and on. I’m sure you could fill in the blanks for me: “You are not _________ enough.” “You are too ____________.” What have these false mirrors told you about you?

You know the feeling. The ad flashes before your eyes. You take a lingering look at the images proudly on display. You immediately begin to intake negative feedback about yourself. That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach begins. You start, once again, to feel badly about yourself. You don’t look like that. You just don’t measure up!

What if we stop this vicious cycle? What if we learn to reject those lying, distorted reflections of ourselves? What if we instead learn to look at ourselves in the right mirror? The book of James gives us a clue as to what that mirror might be. “If someone listens to God’s word but doesn’t do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23-24, GW).

Did you catch it there? God’s word. God’s word is exactly the right mirror to gaze into, if you really want to know “what you look like;” if you really want to get the right perspective reflected back to you about who you are. Today, I want to help you take a good long look in His mirror. Let’s take some lingering moments taking in what it shows us about our worth and value to Him. Here we go:

The mirror of God’s Word shows you that…

1) You look like God. Way back at the beginning of the Bible, He was already talking to us about how precious we are. In the very first chapter of His Word, we find this: “God spoke: ‘Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature’” (Gen. 1:26, MSG). Dear one, that’s amazing! Really, we could just stop right here and spend an hour marinating in this mindboggling truth. God made you in His own image. Just, wow!!!

You know that special joy you get when you see your own resemblance in your newborn child? Or in a child close to your heart? My daughter Anna especially resembles me. Throughout her whole life, we have been hearing countless people remarking, “She’s your mini-Jenn!” There’s no way to quantify how precious that is to me. Do you know that feeling? Well, take it and multiply it by infinity. When God looks at you, He sees Himself. You are His “mini-Jesus.” His heart boils over with delight!

And remember, this is Chapter 1 of the whole Bible. It’s that fundamental. Getting this in the depths of you is crucial to your foundation in Him.

This brings me to point number 2.

2) You are His masterpiece. No one made in the image of God could possibly be anything less. The Master Artisan, God Himself, makes no mistakes. He produces no inferior craftmanship. He has no scrap pile. He has never, ever said, “Oops!” Not even once in all of history. Every one of His works is breathtaking. Look! Look at what your mirror is showing you about this one. We find this prayer in the Psalms: “You alone created my inner being. You knitted me together inside my mother. I will give thanks to you because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made. Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this” (Ps. 139:13-14, GW). Yep, you are His work, and you are a miracle. Ephesians 2:10 sums up this vital truth nicely: “For we are God’s masterpiece” (NLT).

Keep soaking it in, dear one. Point number 3 goes right along with this:

3) Your personal creation design took an eternity’s worth of forethought. Take a searching look in your mirror once again. Take in what Ephesians 1:4-6 reveals to you about you. I’m going to personalize it for you: “Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had you in mind, had settled on you as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt you into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)” (MSG).

No one made God. He always existed. So what was He doing for all eternity past before He decided it was time to create the universe? According to this passage, He was dreaming you up. You were not a spur-of-the-moment, thrown together, last-minute project. Far, far, far from it! He literally put forever into deciding the perfect way to make you. An eternity ago, you were already the focus of His love. He poured the entire infinite capacity of His creative flow into crafting you. He put all of Himself, all of His tenderness, into your creation. And yes, what immense pleasure He took in planning on adopting you, on making you His very own!

So, again, just wow!!! You look like God. You carry His image in the very fiber of your being. You are His masterful craftmanship, His masterpiece. He spent an eternity dreaming up every marvelous detail of your creation design. You know, you really are miraculous!

Remember, though, my dear friend, “If someone listens to God’s word but doesn’t do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23-24, GW).

Precious child of God, don’t forget what you look like this week. Take what He says about you and hold onto it for dear life. You know, our incredible mirror has even more to show us about who we are. But let’s take this week and meditate deeply on what we have taken in so far. Next week join me again, as our list continues!

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How has the mirror of the Word shaped the way you see yourself, since you came to know Jesus?