In the Mirror

In the Mirror

by pastor Brenda El-Talabani

Each of these devotional blogs entries is meant to be read on your own or if you have family or friends you live with, to be read together aloud. A suggestion  is to do this after you have dinner around the table together.  At the conclusion, please spend time in personal reflection or in sharing with one another your answers to the questions at the end. Be sure to conclude with prayer.

Read James 1:19-27

”Do what God’s teaching says; don’t just listen and do nothing. When you only sit and listen, you are fooling yourselves. 23 Hearing God’s teaching and doing nothing is like looking at your face in the mirror 24 and doing nothing about what you saw. You go away and immediately forget how bad you looked. 25 But when you look into God’s perfect law that sets people free, pay attention to it. If you do what it says, you will have God’s blessing. Never just listen to his teaching and forget what you heard.” James 1:22-25

We all have mirrors in our house. Some are small for decorations; some are small just to see our face, and some are larger so we can see our whole selves.  When we look in a mirror, we see what is wrong and fix it. What we see is what is there. We can choose to ignore it or change what we saw. If we choose to do something about what we saw in the mirror, we have acknowledged it and changed it.  If we choose to not change what we saw, we will soon forget about what we saw and go on with our day looking the way we do. So, what is the purpose of looking into the mirror if you’re not going to change what is wrong? 

This scripture says that when we hear God’s teachings but do nothing with it it is like looking at your face in the mirror and doing nothing about what you saw.  It says do not just listen to the Bible but do what it says. Why even look in a mirror if you are just going to walk away and not change what you see that is wrong?  Why even read the Bible if you are not going to change what it reveals needs changing? I am so glad that I can use a mirror to see what I need to change before I leave my house.  I am more grateful that I can look in the Bible and see what it shows me is sin in my life and what I need to change.

Growth only happens when we are willing to admit our weaknesses and then be willing to change as we look into God’s word for directions. We are set free when we look into God’s perfect law and pay attention to it.  When we look and listen to what God’s word says, put it into practice, and never forget his teachings, we will experience God’s blessings.

I hope this will challenge you to look into God’s word as if you were looking in a mirror. Find what you are seeing—what God is speaking to you about, and make a change.

Take time for prayer to talk with God.

 

Reflect with someone else or on your own:


  1. When I look into the mirror of God’s word and truth, do I see something that doesn’t look right?
  2. What is God revealing to me that I need to admit needs changing and need to work on?
  3. If you admit and confess that you need God’s help to be stronger in this area, search the Bible for the help you need, and ask God’s Holy Spirit to help you grow and develop, and you will be blessed.