23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:23-25

Recently, I found a 10x mirror in a discount store, and thought that’d be a great thing to have, since my eyes are beginning to suffer the effects of age. I was sure it would make it easier see my face, when applying make up or removing those pesky unwanted hairs we women fight all the time. What I found was with the additional magnification, I could see all sorts of stuff, I didn’t like. Taking a closer look at everything showed up all kinds of flaws and filth that I couldn’t see before. It also made me able to clean some of that stuff up. If I hadn’t had my flaws magnified, I would have never known they were there.

One purpose of the Hebrew Law was to highlight our inability to live a perfect life. To show us our sins, and thereby show us our need of a Savior. If we don’t understand what God expects of us, we can not possibly expect to understand how much grace He has shown us through Christ’s pardoning death on the cross. James says that we must be hearers and doers of the word. We must read our Bible, we must listen attentively to God’s Word being preached, and then we must apply that head knowledge to our lives. Simply sitting through a sermon once a week can be compared to the man who looks at himself in a mirror and then walks away forgetting what he was like. We must listen with open ears and hearts to the message and then apply it to our own lives, allow the Holy Spirit to do his sanctifying work in us, bringing us ever closer to our Lord.

Just last weekend, my pastor gave an incredible message explaining how, even though the Israelites were miserable after trudging around the wilderness for years, they couldn’t break out of their cycle. God told them they had “compassed this mountain enough.” and broke them out of their rut and moved them toward the promised land. Part of getting out of a spiritual ‘stuck’ point, is looking at yourself closely enough to realize that there are flaws and filth in your life, even if you have to look closely to see them. Are you so accustomed to your current life that you wander along in discomfort when there is a more abundant life just a few steps away?

When we take a closer look at our lives in the light of His Holy Word, we can be shocked at what we see. However, if we read with open minds and hearts, He will renew and refresh us in a way that is hard to imagine before you have experienced it. Part of that process is allowing Him to show us our failures and repenting of them. Spending time in prayer with Him and being quiet to listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit in our heart helps us to begin a walk with Him that is far more rewarding that a life that is spent walking the fence with one foot in the world and one foot in the faith.

For me, personally, no one noticed the spiritual condition I was in. I had convinced myself that how I was living was good enough. I was saved, I was in church at least once a week, I was even active in my church, teaching Sunday School and helping with at least some of the ministries our church participates in. It wasn’t until God put a magnifying mirror in front of my eyes, that I really realized how far from Him I had allowed myself to fall. Once I admitted to myself that I was unhappy with my spiritual condition, and that God definitely was unhappy with it, I could begin the process of moving to a better place. Study, prayer, and self-examination were at the core of that change. In the end, I realized that the only way I could find a real and lasting renewal was to surrender every single aspect of my life to Him, and to continually do that on a daily basis.

Have you looked into your spiritual mirror? Have you held your life up to the magnifying light of the scriptures? Have you spent time searching out what God wants from you? Romans 12:1-2 is enough for most of us to realize we can never do enough for our Lord, but are you walking as closely as you can right now, or is there something you should change?