By Andrea Merrell
The Lord doesn’t
see things the way you see them.
People judge
by outward appearance,
but the Lord looks
at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 NLT
As I listened to her story, it became evident the
woman’s life was a disaster. No one knew. She had lived a life of pretense for
years—even from herself.
This scenario reminded me of another story I heard
once about another woman who appeared to have it all together. She was
beautiful, smart, talented, benevolent, and highly respected in her community.
On the outside, everything appeared to be perfect.
But one day the Lord showed the woman a picture
of her heart. It was filled with envy, pride, criticism, and unforgiveness. God
told her she was like a shiny, red apple—lovely and appealing on the outside—with
a rotten core. She, too, had lived a life of pretense.
There’s an old proverb that says, “Fool me once,
shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The truth is
while we might be able to fool those around us numerous times—and even
ourselves—we can’t fool God. He sees straight through the pretense into the
depths of our heart.
The good news is that in the blink of an eye, He
can make us new from the inside/out when we submit ourselves to Him, confess
our sins, and pray as David did, “Create
in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”
That’s a prayer He is waiting to hear.
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