Joel M Bradshaw

19As in water face reflects face,
so the heart of man reflects the man.–Proverbs 27

There was that old fable about the dog and the bone. He carried the bone in his mouth and then looked down at a pond and saw a dog carrying a bone in his mouth. He wanted the bone and so he opened his mouth to grab the bone from the other dog. In the process, he dropped his own bone into the water and then neither dog had any.

The reflection you see in the mirror or in the water is not the real thing. It’s just light being sent back or reflected to your eyes. But it does give us an indication about the real thing.

There’s something about your inner person that also isn’t real in the sense that the rest of your body is real. You can’t grasp the mind like you can a handshake. Even as the fascinating studies of neuroscience progress, the mind, heart, convictions, and purpose of the inner person remain as intangible as your face in a mirror. Science can’t handle questions about what truly is in your heart or in your mind. It can measure results and data that present themelves, but it can’t go further.

But the inner you is also very real. I just can’t prove or disprove what you are thinking or feeling. Two thoughts jumped out at me.

1. This is what makes the Gospels a little scary for some people. For Jesus KNEW what was going on inside of a person. For hiders, that thought terrifies. For the overlooked, that thought nourishes. The sentence “God knows your heart” is either one that would keep you up at night or give you peace during your day. Matthew 9, for example (I added ALLCAPS)…

1Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

3At this, some of the teachers of the law SAID TO THEMSELVES, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

4KNOWING THEIR THOUGHTS, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

2. Jesus understood the principle of today’s proverb. He knew that the inner you affects the outer you. This is why in the sermon on the mount, Jesus went to the inner heart of the law rather than simply the external letter of the law. Also a key text like Matthew 15…

16“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Certain types of therapies target behaviors. Biblical counseling targets the heart, the inner person. Because unless change happens in the inner person, change will not truly happen in the outer person.

So what about the inner you has perked up during this brief time this morning? Your heart reflects you. I think a great way to land the plane this morning is for you and me to pray this prayer King David once prayed. Psalm 139…

23Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

God bless.—JMB