Treaters, of when I was small. Do you remember those little plastic masks that we wore, the
ones held onto your head by the elastic band! You could hardly see out of the holes that were
cut out for the eyes, they never seemed to be lined up propery! And you would get so hot and
sweaty, that every now and then you would have to lift the mask to get some fresh air!
Grown-ups hide behind masks every day. We all have things that we don't want the world
to know about. We are afraid of being judged, ostracized, laughed at. We even try to hide
things from ourselves..sure we do! "If I don't think about it, it won't exist," "If I don't
acknowledge it, I won't have to deal with it." And my favorite, "If I laugh at it, it won't
bother me." We can fool everyone, including ourselves, but we can't fool God. We can't
hide from Him behind some mask of our own making, He sees all and He knows all.
Psalms 139:1 - 4 "O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest
my down sitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou
compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For
there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether."
We cannot hide from God. He knows when we are hurting, sorrowful, lonely, destitute,
frightened, we might be able to fool others with a smile, but our Lord sees beneath the
smile, behind our masks, into our hearts. We also cannot hide our sin from God. Psalms
69:5 "O God, Thou knowest my foolishness: and my sins are not hid from Thee."
Just because we put our sin out of our minds does not mean that it escapes God's eyes!
We will be held accountable before a holy and just God whether or not we admit our sin
or not.
We spend so much time and energy keeping these self-made masks in place that we are
missing out on the blessing of honesty! You see, you can be dishonest without speaking
a word! We are admonished in Romans 12:17b to "Provide things honest in the sight
of all men." And also in Colossians 3:9a "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have
put off the old man with his deeds:" To mislead others into believing that things aren't
really as they are, is in reality a lie! I'm guilty of this, the 'round about lie.' I tell myself
that, "If they knew the whole truth they would only worry!" I think I'm doing something
good for them, when in reality I'm depriving them of the blessing they would receive from
God by helping or encouraging me.
Are you hiding behind a mask today? It's time to grow up and to take off the mask and
become "real." This doesn't mean that you become a complainer or whiner; it just means
that before God and man you will live, act and speak honestly. When we know the TRUTH,
(John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him (Thomas) I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life: no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me.") then we can trust this TRUTH to set us free!
John 8:32 "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Are you
willing to let the Lord of truth search your heart, to know your way? Let Him help you
remove the mask.
Search Me, O God
Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.
I praise Thee Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
Fulfill Thy Word, and make me pure within.
Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;
Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.
Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;
Fill all my heart with Thy great love divine.
Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.
J Edwin Orr
No comments:
Post a Comment