Not The Image, The Heart

1 Samuel 16:7

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

 There has been a huge misinterpretation of the body of Christ. 

I know I may have spoken about this before, or possibly touch on this but I am going to reiterate it once again. 

There is a huge problem when it comes to the image of the body of Christ. 

The tradition of having the image of someone who loves and does not judge, or being filled with the Holy Spirit. Even the image of being kind to others is just that, an image. 

We, as the body of Christ, are becoming too desirous of the image of being perfect than our hearts being perfect. 

We portray kindness once there are eyes on us, we don't judge when it is convenient for us and we love in a small amount of doses, but this is not the way it should be. 

To truly represent God the very thing He looks at should be perfect in authenticity. 

Perfecting the image of what we think we should be for God will only lead us down a very wide road. It's because when we are focusing only on making sure the outward appearance is good, the heart within us rots away.

It's like wearing a mask every day and when you get home, you take it off. 

You think "Ahh, I can now be my true self because no one else is around" but forgets that God is still watching us. 

We must work on the issues of our hearts.

We must give up the false pretense. 

So, you are not the kindest person in the world despite the number of times you show up to the donation pot. Your heart is not in it when you give. 

That's good that you know because now you can work on that instead of faking who you are.

So you are not truly filled with the Holy Spirit, even though, you continue to come to every service. You pretend that you are but, you're not. 

That's fine because now, you can work on building a more intimate relationship with God than ensuring your attendance is marked. 

God is not interested in our physical image or the upkeep of our materialistic world. 

He isn't looking at how many times we rolled on the church floor for the month. Or how many times we sowed into the new department for equipment. God isn't sitting and marking off points based on if we look good. 

No!

He's concerned about our hearts!

He's concerned about whether or not His daughter is happy with herself. 

He's concerned about that anger that seems to be toppling over in His son. 

He's concerned about the unique gift He gave His child who hadn't used it because they fear it doesn't fit into the norm. 

He's concerned about your heart!

He's concerned about what's happening on the inside of you. 

He's concerned about it being truly pure or filthy. That is where He wants to help you. He wants to help you work out the issues of your heart. 

Let's stop focusing on keeping this fake image of who we think God wants us to be and be true and authentic Christians. 

People who sometimes fall, but get back up again.

People who aren't perfect, but strive to be. 

People who are only living of God's grace and mercy.

People that once were sinners too and the only thing that change is who we now look to. 

People that can show that walking this road can sometimes get a bit hard, but the goal is to not give up.

People who do give up, but God comes and picks them back up.

Let's show the world that we aren't out of reach. That God isn't some complicated code that has to be deciphered in order to be served. 

That He is present in good and bad times. That His love conquers everything, even sin. 

Instead of putting on this fake image that we have all figured out, let's show them that they can serve God too even when not everything is going right! 

Because God doesn't look at the outward appearance He looks at the willingness and the sincerity of the heart. 

~TheRay