WHAT YOU SEE CAN REFLECT WHO YOU ARE

 How we see others is  often a reflection of who we ourselves are.

 

When God showed me what I am about to show you, it put a great many things into proper perspective. We have learned well that what we reap we will sow.  It’s an agricultural statement which Yeshua was making to people who for the most part grew their own food.  If you plant corn, or barley, or cucumbers, you will get corn, barley or cucumbers.  All seed will “bear fruit unto its own kind” (Genesis 1:11, 12).  This, of course, applies to humans and animals in that we have babies that are the same species we are. This applies to natural seed, but it also applies spiritually.  Paul speaks of having “sowed spiritual things in you” (1 Corinthians 9:11).

When we sow seeds of any kind, there will be a crop of whatever we plant. But how does this work spiritually?  If we sow seeds of faith, believing God for something that we know is His will, we can expect to receive from Him.  In that memorable fig tree incident, “…Jesus…said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:21-23).  The apostle John, after many years of living by the Spirit of God has this to say:  “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). 

Wait! Aren’t there just too many “if’s” in that statement? Well, that’s the way of the Kingdom of God.  If we, then He!  If we will, then He will.  Much of what we receive from God is dependent upon us, upon our faith in Him, and upon living according to Kingdom ways – living, desiring, speaking, and loving as Yeshua lived, desired, spoke and loved.  Notice this isn’t about works but about trusting in Him, living from the life of God within us. It’s really not hard. After all, He lives within us by His Spirit. We are never expected to “be” like Yeshua on our own; the Spirit of God is within us to empower us be all God wishes us to be.  That’s what grace is – the empowering to be godly, to be as God is.  Grace doesn’t just mean we’re forgiven, grace means we can live graciously, forgiving and encouraging, meeting needs in others by the power of the Spirit, just as Yeshua did.  As He did all He did trusting in God in peace, so can we.  

I recall one incident when I came to that realization. It was one of those days when I had tried so hard and failed to be all I thought I needed to be.  I went to church that morning not feeling the least like a victorious believer.  My pastor was praying for a woman in need up front at one point and asked me to come forward and help.  Figuring this wasn’t the best time to tell him that I wasn’t even sure I was saved, I started up the aisle toward him, all the while praying: “God, hear my prayer. Please. I’m just going to have to go down into where You are inside and pray from there.” I was thinking that was what to do only in times of emergency.  When I laid my hands on the woman and began to pray, it was with power I knew wasn’t from me. As I walked back to my seat my only thought was, “Oh! That’s how it’s supposed to be.” From then on, I try to be aware to live from the life of God within me. That is the way He meant for us to walk through life – in joyful and peaceful dependence upon Him.  No striving, not trying to be good or be effective, just doing whatever it is we do while trusting that God is working through us.

I once did an extensive study to see why God blessed some people and others seemed far from blessed. I made a chart of blessings and why, and what seemed like curses and why.  In the end I came to see that the difference was between dependency and independence.  Depending fully upon God, leaning on His goodness and presence with us leads to the blessings of God, whereas an “I’ll do it myself” way of life limits us to only who we are.  There’s a saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” But it’s not really Biblical.  Benjamin Franklin wrote those words in his Poor Richard's Almanac in 1757. What is Biblical is that God helps the helpless,. Speaking of God Isaiah said, "for You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat..." (Isaiah 25:4) Our dependence upon the Lord begins with our salvation,  "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Messiah died for the ungodly." (Romans 5:6). Even Yeshua Himself stated often that He only did what He envisioned the Father doing. In other words, there was no independence in Him.  Even Yeshua was entirely dependent upon God to minister to people:  “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). 

Perhaps it just occurred to you that Yeshua sowed only good and loving seed, yet he reaped (received back) rejection and cruelty. That’s true, but the more important issue  for us here is what was His internal dialog?  Did the way others acted toward Him affect how He  behaved toward them?  Or did what happened affect His faith in His Father?  Or for that matter, how He saw Himself?  Those last four words don’t seem to quite apply to Yeshua, do they?  They seem to be about an ego that we as fallen people are always wrestling with that He didn’t have. I wonder if He even had an internal dialog with just Himself, but rather His every thought was in dialog with His Father. After all, even though He suffered all things as we do, until His Gethsemane experience where He began to fully experience an identity with the Fallen nature of man, He wasn’t trapped in any demands of His ego. But we are. The Fall brought separation from God, as we are all to well aware.  Even for those of us who are saved, we still deal with some measure of separation. But we’re learning day by day, by God's grace, how to live beyond that in union with Him, aren’t we?

I recall realizing as a new believer that God ‘heard’ every thought I had so I decided to just think to and with Him. It has been a way of life for many years, making God my constant companion. Often He “speaks” back to me in my thoughts, giving me insights and understanding of something I didn’t have moments before. It may even come in the form of a question causing me to think through something that hadn’t occurred to me till then. On occasion He will even say something quite funny to me making me to laugh out loud with surprise and delight. I’m sure that part of us being created in His image is that we have a sense of humor because He has a sense of humor. Would joy be devoid of humor? I doubt it.  

I recall the first time I heard Him say something back to me that seemed funny to me.  I was trying to plow through laundry for three children and get my house cleaned – ordinary housewife things, but I felt overwhelmed with getting the job done and then getting dinner ready and said to Him, “Lord, why do some people seem to have so much more time than I do.” I didn’t expect an answer but immediately I heard in my thoughts, “Everybody gets 24 hours” causing me to laugh out loud as much from surprise as that the words came with a sense of mirth. I’m not sure I would use that word mirth for anyone but Him. Mirth brings a certain sense of joy or gaity for its own sake.  

So how do we avoid having our own ego, our own self image be affected by the unkindnesses we experience in our lives, for we all have them.  It has to do with what we sow. Yeshua never sowed an unkind word or thought – ever.  Even when He was railing at the Pharisees, He was trying to get them to see the error of their ways so they wouldn’t perish. His motive was compassion, not judgment.  He made it clear, “I do not judge… for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).  We’re all very familiar with John 3:16, but it is followed by John 3:17 which says, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” 

Well, what about us? Do we judge others? Sometimes we think we are helping people by making them aware of their sin and there is a place for that.  “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). Spiritual people speak with gentleness, not accusing judgment. Yeshua put it this way, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42).  A hypocrite in those days was one who acted in a play; who was ‘acting’ as someone they are not. The spiritual application is one who has the form of godliness without the power, or who assumes an appearance of piety and virtue, but does not have a true grasp of true life of the Spirit in restful dependence upon God.    

Not judging does not mean we are not to discern motives. We must discern good from evil, wise from unwise, careful from dangerous, etc. The Bible is clear about all that. There is even a gift of discernment that He gives for the benefit of the body.  But discernment is not judgment. We are not to condemn others any more than Yeshua did when He walked the earth - and died - in love and compassion. How much more love and compassion could be expressed than “Forgive them, Father, for they do now know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34) on behalf of His murderers?  Judgment is God’s job. Only He knows the hearts of men:  “O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, Who tries the feelings and the heart” (Jeremiah 11:20) – “…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sam’l 16:7)

Unfortunately we are not as gracious as Yeshua all the time. So what happens when we do judge? When we sow seeds of judgment, will we reap a crop of judgment?   Here is the startling reality – at least it was for me when God revealed this to me.  When I judge others, it’s not that I will necessarily be judged by others, but that I WILL THINK others are judging me. I plant my own crop of self-judgement when I judge others.  Let’s say someone speaks lies about others, they gossip and speak fabrications of things as they see them, in other words, opinions which are never the whole story.  The reaping may not be that someone will gossip about them – because they may be surrounded by godly non-gossiping people – but that they, within themselves WILL THINK other people are gossiping and saying similar things about them.  We expect people to be as we are, even though it may well be unconscious. How we see others is a reflection of who we ourselves are (...the reason for the picture of the swans above.) I once knew a man who was involved in things he knew he shouldn’t be; he was living a lie. He tended to call other people liars, something the other people wouldn’t have even thought of doing.  We all know those people who won’t go to church because they see Christians as hypocrites. I wonder what place hypocrisy plays in their lives.  What we say about others often reflects much more about us than those we’re talking about.

Paranoia is the continual awareness that others are against you.  The trouble is, many of us warrant those thoughts because of the thoughts we have toward others. We are to be “building one another up, not for tearing down” (2 Corinthians 10:8). This applies first of all to the authority of leadership, but to each of us.

There is another side to this and that is that we often see in others what really is in ourselves that we don’t like or are trying not to see. It's often been called our "shadow self." This isn’t psychology; this is Bible truth. What we judge in others may in fact be what God is trying to make us aware is in ourselves.  I always think of Mother Theresa when I come upon this verse:  “To the pure, all things are pure” (Titus 1:15).  I find it a very convicting verse, how about you?  I doubt there was anyone, including the most destitute and sin-ridden in the world’s gutters for whom she would not feel loving compassion and be moved to help them. Her heart, for all we know, was pretty pure and so she saw people as purely worthy of God’s love.  What we see in others, often reflects more of our own character than the people we are judging.  Call someone rebellious or arrogant, and if that’s what you see in them, perhaps there’s a log you need to attend to before you can show them a better way by your own actions and words. 

So there you are: What we say or even think about others are seeds which will sprout into our own experiences in life, including in our relationship with ourselves, and certainly with God to whom all judgment belongs.  I leave you with these words of Paul who had to learn this himself:  “Finally, brothers (and sisters), whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8,9).

Peace!