Pardon The Dust

1 Samuel 16:7 - But the Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.  People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

How many times do we look at someone or something and say, "That's not gonna work." or "That doesn't look right."?  No matter how many times we repeat the old cliche, "Don't judge a book by its cover," we still do it.  Frequently...

How much do we miss out on because of those dusty old book covers?  When we can't get past the dust covering someone, we pass them by and rarely give them a second thought.

How much do we compare someone else's dust to ours?  How often do we catch ourselves saying, "Well at least I'm not as bad as him."?  There's no shame in admitting that we do that.  In fact it's better that we do confess it.  But how do we correct our train of thought?

The Apostle Paul certainly had a way with words.  One of the most gifted writers the world has ever known said this: "Oh don't worry; we wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are!  But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement.  How ignorant!" (2 Corinthians 10:12).  Wait, did Paul just called me ignorant???

Yes, I do it to.  I catch myself comparing myself to others quite a bit.  Probably more so these last few months since I've been out of work.  I have caught myself more times than I care to admit saying things like, "If only I had a job then so and so would..." or "If I had a job, then I could get a better car and then so and so would..."

I have to force myself to remember that God is more interested in my heart than anything else.  For someone that spends as much time reading the Bible as I do, I would think that I wouldn't struggle with things like this.  This whole being human thing kinda sucks sometimes.

The more often I read these passages, though, the more I realize that God kinda likes the dust.  I can pray and ask him to pardon the dust, but He always replies, "No worries, I'm still gonna brush you off and make you clean."  He doesn't mind bending down to listen to my prayers as long as I'm giving Him what really matters - my heart.

Learning about and discerning what is on someone's heart should be applicable in every situation in our lives.  Especially when it comes to relationships.  I'm a guy, which by definition means I like to look at beautiful women (if you say you don't, you're just lying).  That doesn't mean I lust after all of them, although admittedly there has been plenty of that in my life.  The point is I have encountered less women with a great heart for God and people than I have encountered that made me want to stick my finger in a light socket after 5 minutes of conversation.  And I am quite sure I have probably driven more women to want to stick their fingers in a light socket too...

Yes, we are all made in God's image (Genesis 1:27), and God doesn't make mistakes.  Whenever someone quotes the made in God's image verse to me, I often catch myself thinking, "If God looks like me, I just feel sorry for the guy."  But then I remember that God loved me and my heart enough to sacrifice His only Son so that I could spend eternity with Him.  He didn't allow the fact that I'm not the most extraordinary conversationalist dissuade Him from doing this.  He did it because He loved my heart.  While it wasn't always seeking His Kingdom and righteousness, He knew what it was capable of, and He decided it was worth it.  Sometimes that's just mind blowing to me.  But that's also a big part of the beauty of God.  No matter how close we draw to Him, no matter how much we read the same passages in the Bible, He still blows our mind.  I get a kick out of it, and I'm sure He gets a kick out of doing it too.

Dear Lord God, thank You.  Thank You for blowing my mind and reminding me that my heart is what matters most.  I pray that I keep it focused on You, and not the things of this world that You find detestable.  I pray for those that think they're not good enough, and they need to have more in order to make people happy.  Lord, my prayer is that they will remember that pleasing people should never be their priority, just loving them is.  I pray that they will stop worrying about their dusty book covers, and focus on the content of their pages.  I pray we all draw closer to You every day and You continue to blow our minds with Your amazing and unfailing love.  I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen!



God Bless!!!