I can’t wait to dive into this post and what God has been showing me. I have a song for you to start with, if you have time to listen. God Story Anne Wilson. This song kept playing in my mind after I first decided on the direction of this post. The lyrics place God as the author of our lives and reminds us to glorify him for all he has done. With that in mind let’s get started.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This verse has always intrigued me, that my life is hidden. And with my word for the year being pursue, I’m getting excited to pursue that life that is hidden with my Savior. But what does this verse mean? Let’s go back to the beginning—

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth.”‬‬

B’resheet (Gen)‬ ‭1‬:‭26‬ ‭CJB

Every Christian knows this verse, that we are created in God’s image. But how is that true? I don’t feel like I match the mold, and I don’t see others matching it any better. What happened to God’s image in me?

You know the multilayered answer, I’m sure, but let’s look at a few helpful scriptures.

If you follow your selfish desires, you will harvest destruction, but if you follow the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life.‬‬

Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭8‬ ‭CEV

Free will has given us a choice, and sometimes we choose wrongly.

We can’t always fathom the thought that we have free will and God has a plan that he’s worked out from the beginning of time. So when I considered this next verse, it began to make more sense.

Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”‬‬

Esther‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV

So, did God have a plan for Esther? Yes. Did she have a choice? Yes. But look at what Mordecai told her. God has backup plans. He will use the one who chooses his way.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.‬‬

Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭23‬ ‭NIV

Finding our hidden self is finding ourself in Christ. We need to go back to the beginning, back to the plan.

We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭TPT‬‬

The concept of a mirror helps me work through this puzzle. In this passage we reflect God’s glory as we see him more clearly. The closer we look the greater his glory grows in us. We see Christ in us.

This next mirror is a distorted mirror. This makes perfect sense with the scripture about my life being hidden.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I can almost see this as a two-sided mirror. I look at my side and all I see is my imperfect self. God looks through his side and sees Jesus in me.

This last mirror comes as a caution.

If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.‬‬

James‬ ‭1‬:‭23‬-‭25‬ ‭CEV

The image of God has been in us from the time of creation, but sin and poor choices have distorted that image. But the good news came with Christ Jesus, his death and resurrection paving the way for our restoration to manifest, through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has  come!‬‬

2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭CSB

Who we are has been hidden, and has been revealed. It is only our perception that determines which side of the mirror we see.

There is a divine mystery—a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!

Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.‬‬

Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭26‬-‭29‬ ‭TPT

I pray that you and I will see Christ in us more clearly everyday until we see him in glory.

Grace & Peace,

Sandy

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