Get the Hell out of your eyes

Sometimes I hear God say "Just stop it already!"

Stop what, you may ask? Good question. 

I don't know about you, but all too often when I look at myself, it's certainly not God's eyes I'm looking through. It's my own, eyes that are filled with doubt and condemnation and judgment, eyes filled with the lies of Hell.

So I hear God saying "Stop looking at yourself through the wrong eyes! Try looking through mine."

Now, that's easier said than done. There is a sort of strange comfort in wallowing in darkness, in thinking "I'm not worth much anyway". We're used to those voices that started whispering way back in our childhood, "you're a loser!", "you're ugly!", "you can't do anything right!", "you've messed up too bad for God to love you", "you're NEVER going to change", "it's all your fault!". If I just let myself stay in that place, then I don't have to expect too much of myself. So I look in the mirror and I don't see a precious child of God. I see failure. I see ugliness. I see a bad husband, a bad husband.

Well, no more!

I have decided to crawl up into God's lap, to curl up next to Jesus and say, "Okay, I'm ready. Help me! Help me stop looking at myself through my own eyes. Take the Hell out of my eyes, and give me yours instead".

Something interesting happens when I do that. All sorts of promises pour into my soul...

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14)

I realize that God formed me exactly the way he wanted me, and that I'm wonderfully indeed. I see that if I look at myself and think I have nothing to offer, then I'm making a mockery of all that God made me to be, gifts that God gave to me. I can't take credit for a gift, after all, so why do I feel the need to make myself less? How can I look at myself and think "I'm ugly!" or "I'm not worth much!" when I didn't make myself? How could I look God in the eye and tell him he did a bad job making me?

"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1) 

I am absolutely, 100% forgiven. Each day is a new day, and the sin of yesterday is gone. God doesn't condemn me. Why should I? I am free!

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5)

I am never alone and God will never give up on me. God is always, always with me, and he will never leave me to handle things on my own. I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18)

When I feel like I'm never going to stop sinning, I need to claim this promise, that I am NOT a slave to sin, that sin can be overcome in Jesus' power. What an amazing promise! I can, indeed, change, by the Holy Spirit working powerfully within me.

........

So, here is my encouragement to you. If you, like me, are having trouble getting Hell out of your eyes, then turn to Jesus, crawl up in his lap, and ask him to replace your eyes with His own. Cling to the promises of Jesus every single day. Your life will be changed!

~ in Christ,

Jeremy