CHAPTER 5
Keep Your Eye on the Mirror
What would Jesus do?
A few years ago, that was a popular question. It seemed like people everywhere were asking it, and many people even wore bracelets with WWJD on them, or had bumper stickers with those initials representing the question, “What would Jesus do?” You don’t hear it as much these days, but while working on this book, I realized it’s a great question for Christian moms. It really sums up most everything we need to know.
When our kids are misbehaving and none of our disciplinary tactics have worked, we need to know what Jesus would do to straighten things out. When we only have one nerve left and one of our children is stomping on it, we need to know what Jesus would do to stay sane. When we look at the dangers around us and worry that God won’t protect our little ones, or we wonder how to set a good example for our kids to follow, we need to know what Jesus would do in our place.
Just imagine for a moment what a great parent Jesus would be!
• He would be confident in His ability to discipline properly because He has the wisdom of God.
• He’d always be patient because He’s full of the fruit of the Spirit.
• He’d always trust God for protection because He lives by faith.
• He’d be a good example 24/7 because He’s the perfect imprint and very image of God.
“That’s true,” you might say, “and it’s all well and good for Jesus. But I don’t see how that helps me. I don’t have all the wonderful qualities He has. I’m not like Him!”
Yes.
You.
Are.
If you’ve received Jesus as your Savior, you have within you everything He is and everything He has. Through the miracle of the new birth, He has been reproduced on the inside of you. That’s not just my opinion. It’s what the New Testament says. In verse after verse it declares:
You’ve been recreated in Jesus’ image, regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God.
1 Peter 1:23
You are united to the Lord and you are one spirit with Him.
1 Corinthians 6:17
You’ve become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
2 Peter 1:4
You are born of the Spirit, and the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).
John 3:8, Galatians 5:22-23
You have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.
1 Corinthians 2:16
For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]. And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature].
I know what you’re probably thinking: If all those things are true about me, then why do I have so many struggles? Why do I so often end up doing what Jesus wouldn’t do?
Because the part of you that’s like Him—your spirit—is hidden on the inside of you. It’s wrapped up, so to speak, inside your soul and your body. (This is important to remember: You are a spirit; you have a soul; and you live in a body.) Your soul and body haven’t been recreated like your spirit was when you were born again. They haven’t yet been changed into the image of Jesus. They have to be transformed (completely changed) over time until they conform to and reflect the real inner you.
This transformation can be a challenging process. The first important thing to do is believe that you have God’s nature abiding in you. What you believe determines how you live, so what you believe is extremely important. Secondly, remember that transformation is a process. Celebrate your victories even if they are small—look at how far you have come in your growth in God and don’t stress-out over how far you think you still have to go. We’ll be working with the Holy Spirit for the rest of our lives, learning how to surrender to His will instead of going our own emotional and stubborn way. We can, however, speed it along by doing something that we as women tend to be quite good at: Looking in the mirror—a lot!
Two Life-Changing Revelations
Before you get too excited, let me clarify. I’m not talking about looking in the kind of mirror that hangs over your bathroom sink. That won’t do much to make you more like Jesus. If it did, most of us would be super saints already because we’ve spent countless hours looking into those kinds of mirrors. I know I certainly have. I don’t just roll out of bed looking the way you see me when I’m on television or teaching at conferences.
I spend time every morning digging through bags full of makeup, dabbing creams on my face, and squirting my hair with all different kinds of sprays. I like to look my best when I go out, so I consider my natural mirror to be a very important daily tool in my life.
I have another mirror, however, that’s far more important to me. It’s a spiritual mirror that has changed not just the way I look, but the way I live. It’s a mirror that has transformed me from the inside out and given me a whole new life.
In case you haven’t figured it out already, I’m talking about the mirror of God’s Word.
Although it’s sad to say, I lived for years as a mother and as a Christian without ever discovering that mirror. Oh, I read the Bible sometimes. There were even seasons when I would read a chapter every day. But I did it out of a sense of religious obligation. I thought I was doing it for God and He was going to give me brownie points for it. Finally, though, the Lord straightened out my perspective. He said, “Joyce, it doesn’t help Me when you read the Bible. It helps you!”
Exactly how does the Word help us?
It works in many different ways, but when we approach the Word of God like a mirror, it changes us by revealing two things: First, it shows us who we are in Christ. It opens our eyes to our true spiritual identity. Second, it shows us what changes we need to make by God’s grace in our attitudes and actions so that our outside can more closely match our inside. In other words, it reveals to us how to live like who we’ve been created to be.
If you’ve ever watched the animated Disney movie Tarzan with your kids, you’ve seen a good illustration of what this kind of revelation can do. (Yes, I know Tarzan wasn’t a Christian, but humor me here.) Think about what happened in that movie. In the beginning, Tarzan’s parents died and he lost touch with his identity. The gorillas in the jungle took him in and raised him as one of their own. As a result, he identified with them and acted like them.
Then he encountered human beings and his life started to change. The more he saw how humans lived and behaved, the more he saw himself in them. It dawned on him that he wasn’t a gorilla at all! He was a whole different species of being with the capacity to live an entirely different kind of life. As a result, he began to act differently. He began to live out his true identity. Instead of acting like a gorilla, he began to act like a man!
In a sense, that’s what happens as Christians look into the Word of God. Because Jesus is the Word made flesh, we see Him on every page of the Bible. (See John 1:14.) We see who He is, how He thinks, and how He acts. We see in Him who we’ve been born again to be. In the process, it dawns on us more and more that what the Bible says about us is actually, literally true!
If any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17
And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in every increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another.
2 Corinthians 3:18
No More Bumping Around in the Dark
Personally, I love seeing what I look like in the Word! It makes me feel good about myself. It gives me something to confess when I open my eyes first thing in the morning and I’m reminded of the mistakes I made yesterday. If I’ve been looking in the mirror of the Word, I don’t have to pull the covers over my head and hide when I deal with accusations from the enemy or feelings of condemnation. I can get up with confidence and joy because of who I am in Christ! The more confidence we have as moms, the more confidence we will be able to instill in our children.
Another thing I love about looking in the Word is that it helps me see where I’ve been missing it. It sheds light on the dark areas of my life where I’ve been confused and I need wisdom. Areas where I’ve been bumping into things and making messes because I don’t have enough light to see where I’m going wrong.
Some believers are afraid of that kind of light. They think being corrected by the Word is a negative thing. But it’s not! It’s like looking in a mirror and realizing you have a smudge of chocolate on your face or a piece of spinach between your teeth. You might feel a quick pang of embarrassment, but even so, you’re glad you looked. Otherwise you might have gone through your whole day without correcting the problem.
I know what that’s like. Before I started studying the Word, I lived for years without knowing what a mess I was. I thought everybody else was the problem. I thought my life was miserable because Dave needed to change… or my kids needed to change… or we needed a bigger home or more money. I needed the spiritual light of God’s Word to see that the biggest change that needed to occur in my life was the change in me.
Thank God for the Word! There is life, light, and life-changing power in the Word of God. It has completely revolutionized my life.
There is life, light, and life-changing power in the Word of God.
The same can be true for you. Not only can God’s Word help you be a great mom, but it will tell you what you need to know to have victory in every area of life. That’s why God said this in Joshua 1:8:
This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.
When those words were first written, the only part of God’s Word people could read was the Book of the Law, which consisted of the first five books of the Old Testament. Today we have the rest of the Old Testament and the New as well. If Joshua could deal wisely and have good success with the fraction of the Word he had, imagine what we can do with all that’s available to us!
Be It Unto Me, Lord, According to Your Word
To see an example of a mother who was transformed by the miracle-working power of God’s Word, all you have to do is read about Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was radically changed by looking into the mirror of the Word. She was just a normal, teenage girl living an ordinary life when the angel, Gabriel, appeared to her and said:
… Hail, O favored one [endued with grace]! The Lord is with you! Blessed (favored of God) are you before all other women… for you have found grace (free, spontaneous, absolute favor with and loving-kindness) with God. And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High.…”
(Luke 1:28, 30-32)
That Word from God, wonderful as it was, didn’t appear to match Mary’s situation in any way. She wasn’t anybody famous. The Bible doesn’t indicate she’d had any spectacular experiences in her life that made her feel especially favored by God. What’s more, she was a virgin. So she had every natural reason to say to Gabriel, “Sorry, Mr. Angel, but it looks like you came to the wrong address. I can’t see how this Word from God could possibly apply to me.”
But that’s not how Mary responded. Instead of doubting God’s Word, she believed it. She looked into His mirror, adjusted the way she saw herself and said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word (Luke 1:38 KJV).
That’s what you can say when you read what the Bible says about you!
When you read in 1 John 3:9, for instance, that no one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him… you can say, “That’s the truth about me! God’s nature abides in me. I don’t have to yield to impatience or any other sin. I can be as patient and even tempered with my children as Jesus Himself is because His life is in me. Be it unto me, Lord, according to Your Word!”
“But Joyce,” you might say, “I tried that and it didn’t work. Two hours after I said it, the kids came screaming through the house with muddy feet and I blew up at them. I just can’t change!”
Sure you can.
But to do so you need to remember that being transformed by the Word is a process. Jesus didn’t say if you read a few Scriptures once or twice you’ll be totally changed. He said, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32 KJV).
Think again about what happened to Mary. The promise of God was developing on the inside, yet, on the outside she didn’t look any different for a while. It took time for the divine Seed within her to grow and develop into something the rest of the world could see.
As moms, we should understand this better than anyone else. We know firsthand what it’s like to be pregnant and yet not be “showing.” We’ve felt in our own bodies the invisible inward flutter of a newly conceived life. We didn’t doubt our unborn baby’s existence during those months it was still hidden inside us. We didn’t get discouraged just because it hadn’t yet made its appearance in the world.
No, we just trusted the process. We rejoiced and believed that as long as we provided the little life living in us with what it needed to thrive and grow, it would eventually become a kicking, smiling, beautiful baby we could actually hold in our arms.
That’s the attitude you should take toward the seed of God’s Word. It has His power built right into it. Just as a natural seed has the ability to reproduce the life that’s in it, God’s Word has the ability to reproduce in you His life, character, and nature. For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]… (Hebrews 4:12). It will empower you to be and do whatever it says about you.
So don’t get discouraged just because you don’t change overnight. Don’t get angry with yourself and waste time feeling condemned every time you make a mistake. Just stick with the process! Keep drenching your spirit every day with the water of God’s Word. Keep your eye on God’s mirror and say, “Be it unto me, Lord, according to Your Word.”
Before long, what’s being developed inside you will show up on the outside. More and more, you’ll know and be able to do for your family exactly what Jesus would do.