“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV).
Do you ever get discouraged in your Christian walk? Do you ever get tired of seeing “the same old you” in the mirror? Is your heart broken as you’ve given in to habitual sin…again?
Or maybe you have vision problems: near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism, or legal blindness. Without your glasses everything looks blurry.
Have you ever had to strain your eyes to see something as the daylight has disappeared to shine on someone else? Perhaps you’ve experienced night-blindness or snow-blindness, anything that would make it difficult to see clearly in certain situations.
You are not alone!!
In yesterday’s post I touched on progressive revelation. “Now I know in part….” Paul understood that concept well. He describes it for us this way in Romans 11:33-34: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (ESV).
Science has given us a view of the smallest portion of the universe with the Hubble Space Telescope. We can’t truly even begin to grasp the complexities of our own galaxy! Any honest scientist would tell you that there is far more that we don’t know than that which we do.
The truth is, we don’t really know all that much about the human race. We think we do, but Paul would disagree. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15, ESV).
When we examine our lives we can become discouraged by the fact that we don’t understand our propensity to sin. We don’t understand how we can be so disciplined in other areas of our lives yet fail to stop doing things that we hate. Our understanding is limited. “We see in a mirror dimly….” The image that is returned to us by the mirror is imperfect. It can never give us the whole truth. No matter how much we polish that mirror it can never provide a perfect reflection.
Again I turn to the apostle Paul for guidance. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. …we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18,23, ESV, emphasis mine).
Continue to polish that mirror, search to see the work of the Spirit in your life, it leads to deeper revelation of not only the power of God, but of the Person of God Himself. “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
Skipping Stones 
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