"The Eye of the Beholder"

Sincere, godly men and women of faith are a wonderful blessing in the lives of all. They desire to serve the Lord with a heart of gratitude for the great mercy and love He placed upon them. We hear the words of Jesus speak while He walked on this earth, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. 5:8) There is something special about this kind of person.

God knows it all to well but so does Satan! When Satan approached God, God volunteered his servant Job and God placed His reputation on him. God asked, "Have you considered My servant Job?" (Job 1:8) God knew there was no one like him on earth. Job held to God with all his heart and was found blameless, upright, turning from evil and fearing God. Then the battle ensued. God saw Job as a pure, whole hearted devoted man. Satan saw Job as a hypocrite because if anything bad happens, he would turn on God. God saw in Job a man that glorified His maker. Satan saw in Job nothing but a puny nobody.

Here is what is amazing. What God sees and what the devil sees (and others) are so opposite. When Jesus walked in our world, what He saw in those devoted and forgiven was much different than what others saw. When Jesus approached Matthew, a low life tax collector in the eyes of man, He called him to follow. Jesus saw something different than what anyone else saw. The woman came into Simon the Pharisees house, known for her ungodliness in the eyes of others, poured out her heart and devotion to the Lord. Simon saw the woman, the sinner and questioned Jesus in his own mind (Luke 7:39). Jesus saw a woman forgiven, showing her love to Him who loved her. Looking through the eyes of the Lord and Creator makes a world of difference.

You hear it with many of us. We grip and complain about certain ones. The devil sees us all as failures, hypocrites and worthless. But what does the Lord God see? "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." (Gal. 3:27) When God looks at us, He sees His righteousness because of Christ. Wearing Christ should make a major impact on the way we live our lives and it does for many. Satan was relentless on Job and he will be even more relentless against us. We are too easily carried away by ones weaknesses and failures charging them through the wrong eyes. "Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." (II Cor. 5:16-17)

If we could only see like God sees! We can, can't we? But that would require of us to be like God, doesn't it?