It can be difficult to keep an imperfect face clear without imperfections, just the same it can be really difficult to keep a life, FULL of imperfections, complications, and mishaps to always appear so perfect, eventually you WILL see the blemishes.
So here is what God challenged me with....
What blemishes in my life am I covering up with spiritual concealer ?
What sins or imperfect details about who I am do I try my best to cover up and hide?
As I reviewed my life, there are tons of things that I cover up with concealer. I am FLAWED.
The struggle to be perfect was something that haunted me. I was constantly comparing myself to other people that I deemed as perfect. I was covering up a lot of who I was to please people who really didn't have a heaven or hell to place me in . I was TRAPPED behind a bunch of stuff that didn't illustrate me having freedom in Christ.
So.... I pose the same question to you... What are you trying to conceal in your life?
God calls for a life of transparency from His children.
" Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16
How can you cover up something you confess?
When we sin, our first instinct is to run and hide and Tell NO ONE. See Adam and Eve in the bible for examples!
Sin is dirty, and shameful, and disgusting, who wouldn't want to hide it?
But God says we have to uncover it.. we have to expose it. Sin is equivalent to a pimple ( rock with me).. if you cover up a pimple with make-up.. what does it do? It becomes more gross because the bacteria now has caked on make-up making it the perfect environment to grow in.. so it grows.. and you need more and more make-up to cover up the pimple then you would have if you just washed your face.
Sin is the EXACT same way. When we cover it up.. the lies.. and the deceit and the amounts of things we have to go through to keep the sin covered get bigger and bigger and our sin gets bigger and bigger until eventually we find ourselves in a place where our sin and our flesh have won and things are completely out of control !
If we would just find a brother or sister in Christ to confess our sin to.. we could expose it.. they can turn us in the direction of Christ to help "wash our faces" and the sin can go away little by little.
My problem with my sin was always that people put me on this pedestal that I liked being on..(because of my pride) but the pressure of it was nothing nice. People expected me to be this perfect little Christian girl who had it all together.. but behind closed doors I just didn't. I got really good at pretending. But the more I tried to hide everything that made me imperfect, the more I found myself in condemnation. When you keep things in the dark, it gives the enemy ample opportunity to come in and take over. The more I tried to push my flaws into dark places, the more I found myself consumed by dark things. The enemy would constantly remind me of how imperfect I was, and he would use it against me. Anytime anyone would ask me to talk to them about the Lord, or to do something that would glorify Christ, I would avoid it, not because I hated God, but because I felt unworthy to be in God's presence, let alone try to usher anybody else to Him.
The enemy is amazing at mind games, that is why the bible says "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." - 2 Corinthians 5:10
We have to really focus on making our thoughts obey Christ and to keep them in alignment with Him and His vision for our life. The enemy loves it when we try to cover up sin because now, your thoughts are not focused on Christ, they are focused on how to keep your sin covered up and it leaves the door open for him to come in and take control of your life. DON'T LET THE ENEMY REIGN IN YOUR MIND!
Learn to REPENT and move FORWARD!
" Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord" - Acts 3:19
The only way to move forward from your sin and wash your slate clean is to REPENT... repentance is something that often gets twisted in the church. The act of repentance isn't just asking God to forgive and " cast your sin into the sea" ("Once again you will have compassion on us.You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!" - Micah 7:19 ). What repentance means is that yes, you ask God for forgiveness.. but you have now made a COVENANT with God that says you will put in all the work necessary to overcome that sin and to leave it right in the past of your life where it belongs. Don't just play with it.. you really have to be committed when you say " Lord, I repent..." tons of people are out here " repenting" with out commitment.. that isn't true repentance. Don't talk about it... be about it.
So here is the call... the same call God led me to.. I am extending to you...
Will you be the person who allows God to use you as the example of an overcomer ?
Will you stop allowing the thoughts of what other people may or may not think about you, hold you captive from receiving true freedom in Christ?
Will you allow God to get the ultimate glory from even your very worst circumstances, because in the grand scheme of things you know that it is His glory that matters...
Will you allow a perfect and holy God to remove the make up from your face... to expose you and your sin for being ugly and dirty, shameful and disgusting, and replace your face full of concealer with pure, fresh, cleansing water.
“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.- Isaiah 1:18
" But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin." -1 John 1:7
Allow Christ to make your blemishes dissapear. Allow Christ to make you spotless and whole, Allow Christ to be Christ in your life, stop covering up sin that is not suppose to have any power or authority over you! Take off the concealer and let God cleanse you.
"God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin." - 1 Corinthians 1:30
"So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say,
“People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” -1 Peter 1:13-25
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” -1 Peter 1:13-25
LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU,
Nicole L.
