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Apr 23, 2023 06:00am

Best Friend or Worst Enemy

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I remember waking up at church camp one morning and walking into the bathroom to wash my hands, along with several other ladies who were standing at other sinks in front of a long mirror that went the length of the room. Everything was fine until I glanced in the mirror and realized I hadn’t taken off my makeup the night before and it was smeared all over my face. On top of that, my hair looked like it had been through a tornado and was pointing north, south, east and west at the same time! And we won’t even talk about the bags under my eyes from staying up late the night before, talking with my friends as we sat on our bunks in the cabin.

Unfortunately, I also suffer from what my Daddy Bob used to call “hoof and mouth disease” — meaning that I often say what’s on my mind without considering the audience I might or might not have. I wish you could have heard the giggles and belly laughs from those ladies when I looked in the mirror, got an awful look on my face (which only made the reflection I was seeing even worse!) and said, “Pat Spriggs (my husband) must REALLY love me!”

Of course, it was true because Pat still loves me even though he sees me first thing every morning, and some days I look even worse than I did on that particular day. So that old third century BC Greek saying must really be true: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”

Sometimes the mirror can be a woman’s (and I suppose a man’s, too) best friend or worst enemy. The device simply gives an accurate reflection of what we look like and that’s when we have a choice to make — try to make it better or leave it like it is. The Bible definitely has something to say about that subject and relates it to reading God’s Word — the Bible:
“Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (James 1:23-24 NIV).

Fortunately for those ladies at camp, I did my best to improve on my original reflection. Of course, the reflection still wasn’t perfect, but I did the best I could. And I finally just threw up my hands and quoted my mentor in the ministry who said, “We wouldn’t worry nearly as much about what people thought about the way we look if we knew how seldom they did!”

Yes, a mirror can be a person’s best friend or worst enemy, depending on what they do with what they see.

After we accept His Son as our Savior, God sees us as a beloved child and He proclaims that we are “…fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalm 139:14 NKJV). He knows we aren’t perfect, but we are beautiful to Him because we are His.

God loves us with an everlasting love and when He looks at a born-again believer, He sees a reflection of His beloved Son, Jesus. Nothing is more beautiful to Him than that.

I once heard it said that “God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay that way.” That’s why He gave us His Word… so that if we do what it says, we will become more and more like Jesus and even more beautiful to God.

Reading the Bible is always good because “it will not return unto him void” (Isaiah 55:11) — meaning that He will always bless and teach us when we read His Word. But applying the Bible to our lives and memorizing it is even better because it will keep us from sin! “I have treasured your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11 HCSB).

One more “camp story” and I’ll hush (at least for a while). I was a counselor at camp and was blessed to be able to talk with a young girl who was doubting her salvation. I knew the sweet girl and her teachers, and I knew she had heard the plan of salvation before, so I just quickly took her through the ABCs of salvation:
• A — Admit you’re a sinner “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that the “the wages (or payment) for sin is death..” (Romans 6:23).
• B — Believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins (a debt we could never pay) “God proved His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8).
• C — Confess those facts to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you, be “the boss” of your life, and give you the gift of eternal life. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

I went on to share with her that once she truly does those things, she will be saved forever. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39)

Her little head was bobbing up and down in total agreement with each point, and each time, she said “I did that!” But she was still worried because she said it “seemed too simple…” Finally, it was getting late, so I just said, “I’ll be praying for you,” and she thanked me, but I told her not to be so quick to thank me because what I was going to pray for was that she would be absolutely miserable and would be up all night, tossing and turning, worrying about whether or not she was saved and that I’d have the same kind of night if she wasn’t. We agreed to talk again the next day and went to our separate cabins.

The next morning, her face was one of the first ones I saw when I walked out the door, and she was grinning from ear-to-ear! I asked, “How did you sleep, Sweetheart?” And she quickly answered, “Like a baby!” To which I responded, “So did I!” As far as I know, she never doubted her salvation again.

When you look into God’s Word, do you see your reflection as a saved child of God? Of course, you don’t see a perfect one, but do you see someone who is learning from His Word and striving to be who He wants you to be? The Bible can be your Best Friend if you’ll let it be!