Who Does Your Heart Reflect?

When people see you, who do they see? Do they see you or do they see Jesus?

Just as a mirror reflects the image of whoever stands in front of it, your heart also reflects who is standing in front of it. It is God's desire that your heart reflects His Son, Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of The Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from The Lord who is The Spirit." 

Reflecting the Heart of Jesus

When Jesus was here on earth, He compared Himself to a Vine and His disciples to the branches of a tree. He reminded them that they could do nothing without Him (including bearing good fruit) and that the only way they could change on the inside was to abide in Him.

John 15:5 says, "I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

The fruit that Jesus is referring to is the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23:

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Just a few verses after Jesus refers to Himself as the Vine, in John 15:7-8, He also says, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

Jesus makes it very clear that the only way your heart can begin to reflect Him is to spend time with Him--letting His Word get deep down on the inside of you and for Him to abide in you as well--to get to know each other.

Which Tree is Your Life Bearing Fruit From?

Before you fully surrendered your life to Jesus, your heart reflected you and the wrong choices you made. As a sin-stained human, the image being reflected back in life before Jesus was blurry and smeared with rotten fruit.

In Matthew 12:33-37, Jesus said, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

Because satan has a counterfeit to everything the Lord's Kingdom has, eating from the devil's rotten fruit "tree", before you accepted Christ, dirtied the picture of Jesus in your heart.

But, now that you know Jesus and are surrendered to Him, and now that you spend time with Him through the indwelling presence of The Holy Spirit, His very presence cleans up and beautifies the picture of Jesus being reflected in and from your heart.

When you stop abiding with the father of LIES and instead abide with the Father of LIFE, the reflection changes.

The more you abide with Jesus and He abides with you, the more you start to reflect His character and His heart. When people see you, they start to see Jesus in you because you are starting to reflect His life more and more.

Sanctification Comes Packed Inside of a Seed:

When you repent and turn away from sin, trusting Jesus to be your Savior, He gives you His Spirit and His righteousness on the inside of you. When God sees you, He sees Jesus because Jesus' righteousness covers you. Your spirit man is made alive in Him by the power of The Holy Spirit! 

But, you haven't received a new body from Jesus yet. Because your old body has been touched by sin, there is a wrestle between wanting to do right and wanting to do wrong. Romans 8:13 says, "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

Your spirit man already perfectly reflects the image of Jesus and when God sees the mirror of your spirit, He sees a beautiful clear picture of Jesus staring back at Him. But your body, since it's been corrupted by sin and hasn't been transformed yet, may still have parts of you reflecting back from it.

This isn't an excuse to sin. Far from it! Instead, it means that sanctification comes packed as a seed and your spirit man has been given the responsibility of intentionally surrendering your flesh to the Vine to have both your spirit man and your flesh nourished through abiding in Him.

The more you abide with Jesus, the more the seed of sanctification grows, and the more the fruit of The Spirit grows in your life. The more the fruit of The Spirit grows,  the more your life in your body (not just the spirit man) starts to reflect Jesus in you to others.

How Is Your Reflection?

If you have given your life to Jesus, but the image of Him in your life isn't clear yet, I challenge you to spend more time with Him, abiding in His presence:

• Read His Word daily
• Pray
• Spend time in church
• Put God first
• Draw near to Him

Let His love and His influence through His Holy Spirit transform you from the inside, out and may the reflection of your life reflect a clearer picture of Him year after year!