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Mirror Image: The Faith to Look Again (Part 1)

  • Nov 1, 2021
  • 8 min read

This blog post is a little different than I’m used to writing, but all week, the subject of “mirrors” has been on my mind, so I ask you to be patient and to take this journey with me.



One of the most liberating lessons that I have learned is that the words and actions of others has absolutely nothing to do with me. I used to receive the treatment I received from others as a reflection of my worth, but that was never true.


A person can only treat you at the level that their character allows them to. If someone lies to another, it isn’t because that person isn’t worthy of the truth. In other words, what you do is no shame on me, it’s all on you. Your words and actions are a testament to your truth. Mine are my own. I am only accountable for how I move, and the same goes for you. While I’m comforted by this fact, I have come to realize that from time to time, I’d rather avoid my truth. It’s a lot easier to ask, “Why do they do what they do,” than to ask yourself, “Why do you?”



​In an effort to practice more self-awareness, I started to view every interaction, relationship, and circumstance as a mirror that allows me to see me for who I am. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines a mirror as “a reflective surface that reflects a clear image; a thing regarded as accurately representing something else.” In the same way that we can become more aware of our physical appearance by spending time in the mirror, we can become more cognizant of our internal condition by the words we speak, the actions we take, and the habits we create. Jesus says, “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45 NIV).


Pastor Kevin Gerald puts it like this, “What we think internally will get expressed verbally.” Do you like what you see in the mirror, or do you avoid what you see? It’s funny to me because I’ve realized that I do this practically. You won’t find me in the mirror when I’m not physically healthy. The mirror won’t hide that extra weight that I put on, a breakout, or messy hair. Similarly, I avoid the metaphorical mirror when I don’t like what I see internally. I have a tendency to hide, to run, to avoid, and to isolate from; and yet, even in my solitude, I’ve taken me with me.



The tricky thing about being self-aware is that you can think something about yourself that isn’t true. Have you ever thought you were patient until traffic proved otherwise? Have you thought you were loyal or honest until you were given the opportunity to compromise? The right circumstance will reveal something to you, and the greater the pressure, the more revealing the truth. Maybe, you believe half-truths, but I believe that true self-awareness will consist of the wrestling over the dichotomy within you.


While it is true that our words and actions come from the overflow of our heart, it is also true that there are two warring parts that exist within you. You, my friend, are both spirit and flesh. Both the Spirit of God and the flesh of the world are in you, and until you come to know God, the flesh within you is the only part that has been nurtured and fed.


For many of us, we came to God with our spirit starved and parched, while our flesh has been eating enough to satisfy the hunger of ten full grown men. This is incredibly easy to do when the world is literally set up to feed and cater to the flesh side of you. It’s no wonder that we get so many battle scars when we first try to live for God. Our spirit feels anemic and weak while our flesh feels like an unconquerable beast; and yet the Bible says that “Greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world.” Here’s what I think: You just gotta eat!



Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35 NIV). He says, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:36 NIV). I love the way DeVon Franklin puts it. He says, “Whatever you feed is going to grow.” Jesus says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 NIV).


There is a powerful picture example that Pastor Michael Todd gives in his “Before the Person, Relationship Goals” sermon. He depicts the Holy Spirit as water that is poured over you (over the things that previously defined you, the identity given to you by people, the negative words and lies spoken over you by the ones in your life, everything that you’ve experienced from others, and your own words and actions). As you spend time with God in His Word and in His Presence, His Holy Spirit fills you up to the overflow, washing away everything that is not of God from your life.



Before we come to know God as our Father and spend time with Him in His Word, we are completely unaware of who we are. We see our words, actions, habits, achievements, and failures as our identity, and we see the way we are treated by others as a reflection of our worth and value. As Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts said, “You are not a reflection of what you’ve gone through.” That’s only a part of you. It’s only a part, it’s only a part, it’s only a part. We see who we are now, and even this, we see only in part, but God sees fully; He sees who we have been, who we are, and who we will be. “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:9NKJV). “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NKJV).



God created us in His Image, and Jesus, His Son, is the example we were meant to model our lives after (Genesis 1:27 NIV). Think about it. Who looked more like God than His own Son? Jesus is the Word, who became flesh, and He lived the Word here on earth as a living, breathing, walking example of who God created us to be (John 1:14 NIV). In the Book of James, he uses an interesting analogy. He says, “Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after, looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23-24 NIV). Why would James compare the Word to a mirror? I believe he makes this comparison because every time we listen to the Word, it’s like we are finally getting an opportunity to see the “real me.” The Mirror of God gives us a glimpse of who we really are: The version of us not hampered down with the world or the sin of our flesh.


We never look more like who we truly are than when we are walking in alignment with the Word of God. The reality is that you can’t see and don’t even know who you really are yet, but God’s Word and Spirit will reveal to you the true version of yourself as you spend time looking in His Mirror. God wants us to know who we are, and we can’t know who we really are without spending time with our Creator. Who knows the creation as intimately as its creator? It doesn’t matter how old you are, if you’re still alive, God is still unveiling you to yourself and to the world. Like Shrek would say, “You have layers, like an onion.” One of my all-time favorite sayings by Pastor Touré Roberts is when he quotes Romans 8:19, saying that “The world is waiting in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”



The Bible is filled with countless examples of people who didn’t know who they were, and even after God told them, had trouble believing it because they could only see the version of themselves that they knew. They couldn’t see themselves from God’s point of view. “For My Thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My Ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My Ways higher than your ways and My Thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV).


Abraham saw himself as childless, but God knew he was “the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5 NIV).


Jacob’s name literally meant “supplanter” and“deceiver,” and he acted in accordance with his birth name. It wasn’t until later when he wrestles with the Lord that he is given the new name of Israel because he had “struggled with God and with humans and” had “overcome” (Genesis 32:28 NIV).


Moses didn’t know he was Moses, the leader and deliverer of the Jews. He thought he was too slow of speech to become a leader, and he felt his past actions would disqualify him from the position.


Joseph knew he was hated by his brothers, but God gave him a dream that one day the same ones who would throw him into a pit, would bow down at his feet.


Esther saw herself as an orphan with little say in anything, but God positioned her as queen so that she could change everything.


Gideon was hiding in a winepress when he was called a mighty warrior.


David was out shepherding sheep when he was anointed as king.


Saul was persecuting Christians before Jesus changed his name to Paul, and he became the apostle that we have come to know as the one who suffered extreme persecution in order to promote the Gospel around the world. These are just a few of the MANY examples in the Bible where God shows us, “You are not who you think you are.”


With so many mirrors around us reflecting a variety of images and messages, it is easy to be deceived into believing that what we see is true, but God’s Mirror, is the only true reflection of you. His Mirror sees deep inside of you. It is not foggy, blurry, cracked, or only partly true; God’s Mirror reaches and reflects the depths within you. “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow” (Hebrews 4:12 KJV).


God’s Mirror sees both of you: your spirit and your flesh. He does not choose to overlook your flesh and say that He will only take the best part of you. He takes ALL of you! Your flesh is your weakness that He will use for His Glory to shine through. He says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My Power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV). Your spirit and your flesh will continue to wrestle, but fear not, you will overcome because “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NIV). The same “Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead” lives inside of you, and I am “confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:11 NIV; Philippians 1:6 NIV). ​

“Mind Monsters (Part 4) by Pastor Kevin Gerald

“Before the Person-Relationship Goals” by Pastor Michael Todd https://youtu.be/H7h5BHax06c

“I Didn’t Know I Was Me” by Bishop T.D. Jakes https://youtu.be/h2J7cqnvAOc

“Open, Says Me!” by Pastor Touré Roberts https://youtu.be/VCSKFI6lwtI

“Wrestling Doubt” by Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts https://youtu.be/z_nKxjSKGpc

“Gratitude” by Brandon Lake https://youtu.be/vA83MufOCoA

Written by Crystal Bryan.

 
 
 

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