Outside vs. Inside
By Tracy Smith
But the Lord said
to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected
him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look
at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
Two
different doctors looked at the mole on my husband’s back and declared it
nothing to worry about, it looked fine. The dermatologist offered to take it
off because it was big and could catch on things. The surprising diagnosis came
back a week later: basal cell carcinoma. Something that looked okay on the
outside was, in fact, something ugly when the inside was inspected under a
microscope. He needed to make a trip back to the doctor in order to make sure
they got all of the cancer out;
otherwise, the cancer would grow back.
We,
like the doctor, look at the outside of a person in order to try to judge the
inside. Like the doctor, we can be wrong; the outside can deceive. God looks to
the inside. He knows that the inside is what shows a person’s true heart. The
Lord knows how good we are at “prettying up” what is, in fact, quite ugly.
If
we look to the inside of ourselves and find something ugly, we need to be open
to cleaning it all out of our heart
in order to make sure it does not return. Psalm 139:23-24 (MSG) says, “Investigate
my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a
clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything
wrong - - then guide me on the road to eternal life.” This verse is about asking God to show you
any “cancer” that resides inside you and asking the Great Physician to heal
you!
While
regular trips to the dermatologist for skin checks are in my husband’s future,
we all need to make sure we are making regular trips to the Great Physician for
a heart check!
GOING
DEEPER
1.
What kinds of things do you do to “pretty up” what is in your heart?
2.
What actions can you take, with God’s help, to clean it up?
FURTHER
READING
Along
with being a wife and mother to two boys, Tracy is an administrative assistant
at Oakwood, serves on the Women’s Ministry Special Events Team and leads a
great group of Junior High girls.
