3.165 Help Me See Like the Lord Sees

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It is a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Maybe I should back up and even ask, can you look at yourself in the mirror, eye to eye? I remember several years ago, my wife put a challenge out to all of us to every day, morning and night, to look into the mirror eye to eye with yourself and say, I love you.

I love you. I love you. I think it was three times if I remember it correctly.

And me and the girls, we all talked about this and how difficult it was to look in that mirror and look eye to eye and just say, hey, I love you. Good job for being who you are. It got me thinking as we get into the tail end of our reading here.

This week has been a roller coaster of Saul: one of joy and goodliness, one of sadness, and ultimately a downfall. Then we get on 1 Samuel 16 and inside of it we see where the Lord is headed. He's headed in another direction.

We're gonna see another story, another rise and fall. In fact, we're going to see several of them coming through this section of the Old Testament, but we're going to get a new lens here and see a little bit more into how the Lord selects those that he selects. Let's take a look at 1 Samuel 16, verse 7 here.

As Samuel is in the middle of meeting with family to select who's basically going to become the next king. Samuel's going through the family, checking everybody out. He's got his bet on who he thinks the Lord's going to pick.

And then verse 7 says this: Looketh on the heart. Now, isn't it interesting here that our first look at our King, with Saul, specifically referenced his height—how he stood shoulders above everybody else? Isn't that interesting?

And then we get to 1 Samuel 16 as the Lord, teaching Samuel, hey, maybe, maybe this time we don't go for the physical characteristics. I don't think the Lord's saying that to Samuel like that, but it's an interesting perspective here as he says, Samuel, stop looking at the countenance and the height of his stature. Instead, look inside, see who's in there.

My friends, I have found that in my life when I will take time to pray and ask the Lord specifically to help me see others the way he sees them, I know my perspective of others changes. I've done it with difficult students I've had when I've been a teacher. I've had it with difficult neighbors I've had in the past.

I had opportunities where I tried to kneel down and pray and say, Lord, help me see the way that you see. I think 1 Samuel 16 gives us this great introspect to how David's going to be selected here. The Lord's going to pick the little guy.

And it's so interesting how often he picks the little guy. I hope that as you take an opportunity to look in the mirror, that you don't just see the outward appearance of who's looking back at you, but that you're able to look in the mirror and see you for who you are. A child of God, born of noble birth.

See that light inside of you and share that light with others is the call to action today, my friends. That is all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.