Very few of us are who we seem to be, the majority of us will attempt to portray an image to the world, to those around us, of who we would like to be seen as, who we are attempting to persuade people who we are. We do this not only by our appearance, the external accoutrements we don each day, but by our demeanor, but these are almost always relative to the nearness of association that we have with those around us, in other words, very rarely do we allow anyone to see who we really are inside.
I have a revelation for you, most people think about you much less than you might believe, in fact, you probably rarely even cross their minds, in a crowd of nearly eight billion of us, that would be difficult to do. It is not a question of how many individuals intimately know you, it is one of how many have you allowed to know you, the you that is truly you. This is the line that the majority of the people will not cross, even from their most cherished family and friends, parts of us are withheld, but for whatever reason these parts are not revealed, the truth remains the same, they are emotion based reasons. Trust is earned, and it is almost always earned by actions, that part of you that you have revealed to another in this area was only spoken of by reason of trust, for it is a part of you that you are sharing, you are trusting them for various reasons.
Do you know why some people trust the Lord with these most intimate details of their lives, these parts that will most likely never be shared with anyone else ever. It is not because they are sure He will not go and tell someone else, “Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” (Luke 12:3) It isn’t even because they are aware that He already knows everything about them, it is because we trust Him, He has shown Himself to be trustworthy. These parts of us that we will not share with others are more than likely those items we do not want within ourselves, no one hides from anyone that thing which brings them happiness, but instead those items that will cause shame and embarrassment, so then, if that statement is true, just how much of Christ are you sharing with those around you.
If He is the reason for your life, if He is your joy and happiness, you would inform all that you meet at every opportunity, He would be the image that you would want to portray, if not, then He is an embarrassment to you, something, some one that you would be ashamed to let others know about. There are no other viable alternatives in the context of this letter that come to my mind, the image that the Christian is to portray is the image of Jesus Christ, He releases us from the bondage of trying to be what we are not, of attempting to reveal a persona of what others think we should be, He allows us to be like Him.
The main purpose of the work of God in our lives is to make us like His Son, our main purpose is to glorify Him, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2) The transforming of ourselves by the renewing of our minds is the transformation from the you that you are today to the image of Christ that you are becoming, every attribute of His character, not just the ones that make you feel better, not just the ones you want to portray, but all of them.
We cannot love like Christ if we refuse to reprove and correct, we cannot show others their sins against the Most High if we are not willing to love them. This is the wisdom and knowledge of dying to self, (Gal. 2:20) these are those who have learned to love not their lives to the end, (Rev. 12:11) who understand the truth that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Phil. 1:21) What the world and all those in it think about them is immaterial, what they think about Christ is all that matters, and all these individuals want others to see in them is Jesus Christ. Who we are matters very little, who we are in Christ is all that matters, and in the end, that is all that people should remember of you.
