What if we were flipped inside out?

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. (Matthew 23:25-26)

We live in a culture today where image is everything. What if your image isn’t popular? What if your personality or practices are not in line with what you preach? Then what? Do you seek more of God’s anointing so that your behavior exemplifies what you teach or do you simply mask your faults and shortcomings? The Pharisees chose the latter. They thought it would be easier to clean the outside up and “talk the talk” and men wouldn’t realize that they were spiritually dead on the inside. Their followers didn’t realize but one day, Jesus himself approached them and called them on it. Just as they had to give account for their hypocritical double standards - WE too will one day have to give account for everything we do and say. Jesus is always watching even when no one else is looking.

What they failed to realize is that if you begin the purging and cleansing process on the inside - then it is bound to work its way through to the outside. I imagine that they never thought that everything that they did in the dark would come into the light. They wore their priestly garments, taught and prayed in the synagogue. But what kind of thoughts did they think? What did they hide in their hearts? They looked good on the outside. They talked the right talk but God judges the heart. Man judges the outer appearance. They couldn’t fool God.

We can quote all the scripture we like, memorize all the bible verses and give the biggest offerings in the congregation but if your heart isn’t right - you are only pleasing man and your ego. God is not impressed with your good works and holy talk if your heart isn’t right. It doesn’t matter if your skirt is dragging the ground and your bible is marked up the most if you aren’t “walking it out” and applying it in your daily life. Otherwise, you are merely tripping over your skirt with a well-colored book.

If we were to be flipped inside out, would God be pleased at what he saw? Would we still be so saved and sanctified?

So now we must all examine ourselves and pose this serious question: Am I being cleansed from the inside out or am I merely scratching and polishing the surface so that it looks good?

I have to give it how I get it. Stay encouraged.

Shanita Waters
Author of By His Stripes We Are Healed
www.waterplantgrowth.com