The fifty pound bag of fish food boasted “promotes aggressive feeding patterns.” It’s not wrong. The bluegill and turtle population meet us at the sea wall each evening as we trek the half acre to the lake edge. My husband took up feeding the fish in our first lakeside home when our children were small. He may say his latest investment is to grow the bait fish population but we all know the truth. It’s for our grandchildren!
He scatters the food nightly so that when the little ones come to visit, they’re treated to their own private aquarium. He scatters the pellets wide on a daily basis because when the toddlers are feeding, most of the food ends up next to the wall in big groupings. I’ve seen him scoop out the clumps with a small net and redistribute the pellets once the babies are back in the yard or getting ready for bed, but their faces when the fish start dancing is priceless!
As I drove home from the newest grandbaby’s house last night, I heard a popular Christian artist singing a song I’ve heard many times before but it hit me differently this listen. Sometimes I’m singing along with words that carry such rich meaning for months before they come alive in my mind, resonating deeply. Seasons of my own life flashed vividly before my mind’s eye, once disconnected but now irreversibly knit together. The refrain brings such clarity.
“I stand in front of the mirror and I don’t like who’s looking back at me.
Wish I could see things clearer like who I’m supposed to be.
Who I am in the eyes of the Father
Who I am His love set free”
Ben Fuller WHO I AM Songwriters: David Andrew Spencer / Ben Fuller / Krystal Polychronis
Who I Am lyrics © All Essential Music, Be Essential Songs https://youtu.be/ZrpTTtvrRfI?si=ImOwY2D1JgZ1iE1H
We’re so obsessed with externals like physical appearance, style, aesthetics that we have lost sight of where our true beauty lies. If you want to know your identity and worth, you must look to God’s Word to what God sees and according to scripture, He sees our hearts. The enemy has us so distracted by everything superficial that we are missing such a beautiful Truth. Samuel’s mistake was looking for the next king with his eyes, but hear God’s ultimate response when He sent Samuel to anoint the next king of Israel.
“Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”
When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”
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.””
1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1sa.16.1-7.NLT
Fuller continued his refrain, “Who I was I left at the altar. I am Yours, Lord. I believe. I’m a child of the most high God.”
“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1.12.NLT
Think about the comments you make aloud or on social media, but even more about the monologue playing effortlessly inside your head 24/7/365. I could suggest a list but I’m sure yours is already formed in your mind. When a new baby is born, people mention things like beauty, how his eyes favor one parent or the other, her size compared with their own children or grandchildren, the standard acceptable commentary. There are sentiments reserved for weddings and anniversaries, birthdays and funerals. We say mostly what we’re expected to say unless we’re in an emotionally charged setting, then we say too much or nothing at all. Where do the thoughts and words originate? The Bible has an answer for that and it’s also a matter of heart.
““A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
A tree is identified by its fruit.
Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes.
A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart.
What you say flows from what is in your heart.
So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”
Luke 6:43-46 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.6.45-46.NLT
What you say flows from your heart, or as older translators worded it, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. No wonder David prayed in Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, Lord.”
“Your word I have treasured and stored in my heart, That I may not sin against You.”
Psalms 119:11 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/psa.119.11.AMP
“I’m single-minded in pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God; train me in your ways of wise living.
I’ll transfer to my lips all the counsel that comes from your mouth; I delight far more in what you tell me about living than in gathering a pile of riches.
I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you, I attentively watch how you’ve done it. I relish everything you’ve told me of life, I won’t forget a word of it.”
Psalms 119:9-16 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/psa.119.9-16.MSG
What is reflected from inside, that which is stored up in our hearts, day by day over a lifetime, is true beauty. Where does it originate? God.
“Then God said, “Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that creeps and crawls on the earth.” [Ps 104:30; Heb 1:2; 11:3]
So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them. [Col 3:9, 10; James 3:8, 9]”
Genesis 1:26-27 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/gen.1.26-27.AMP
Jesus, speaking to the religious leaders of his day, referenced Psalm 118, calling Himself the stone the builders rejected that has now become the chief cornerstone. (Mark 12:10)
“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.
He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
John 1:10-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1.10-11.NLT
Isaiah prophesied, “My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”
Isaiah 53:2-6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.53.2-6.NLT
“Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”
Proverbs 31:30 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/pro.31.30.NLT
“Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.
You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.”
1 Peter 3:3-4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1pe.3.3-4.NLT
Only what is conformed to the image of God is truly beautiful and has eternal value. Don’t expect the world to recognize or appreciate in you what it rejected in Jesus.
In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed, “I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.
They do not belong to this world any more than I do.
Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.
Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.
I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”
John 17:14-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.17.14-21.NLT
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.12.2.NLT
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.2.20.NLT
“We live between the “already” and the “not yet,” between the glory of what God has already accomplished and what God has not yet done but has promised to do.”
Read the Bible: Deut. 29, Psalm 119: 49-72, Isaiah 56, and Matthew 4
“God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy.
As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.
So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
You love him even though you have never seen him.
Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:2-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1pe.1.2-9.NLT
“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Matthew 6:21 NLT
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