The Mirror of Hope
James Chapter 1 verses 22 through 27 read as follows from the NIV version of the Bible:
22 Don't just listen to the word. You fool yourselves if you do that. You must do what it says.
23 Suppose you listen to the word but don't do what it says. Then you are like a man who looks at his face in a mirror.24 After looking at himself, he leaves. Right away he forgets what he looks like.
25 But suppose you take a good look at the perfect law that gives freedom. You keep looking at it. You don't forget what you've heard, but you do what the law says. Then you will be blessed in what you do.
26 Suppose you think your beliefs are right because of how you live. But you don't control what you say. Then you are fooling yourselves. Your beliefs are not worth anything at all.
27 Here are the kinds of beliefs that God our Father accepts as pure and without fault. When widows and children who have no parents are in trouble, take care of them. And keep yourselves from being polluted by the world.
The idea of looking in the mirror has been there from day one.
It is something just about everybody does, whether it be combing the hair or otherwise
Otherwise while we do project an appearance, we don't have the first person view of the appearance we are projecting to others or the view we are giving out as we go about.
The mirror as represented in this section of James, involves the possible spiritual exercise of the listener the preaching or the teaching of the word, which in itself acts like a mirror on the person, or the exercise of prayer, the practice of contemplation, or the entering into meditation in the presence of the Lord, say in the setting of a silent church where the distractions are left aside.
All these act as a mirror where we are looking into the soul of things through these channels that are important provisions for our journey which is also a spiritual journey.
Positively these practices operate as a mirror, shedding light on who we are and where we are in the journey of faith, and means by which we can see into the interior of our souls.
Within these spiritual states, we are finding out who we are in the presence of the Lord who created us in the first place.
The verses here speak of striving or heading into the law of liberty, and by saying this there is the idea that these spiritual exercises to start with involve and partake of freedom as within prayer, within meditation, within hearing the word, you are seeing things potentially as they really are and also getting a handle on the diverse and myriad surrounding circumstances and maybe better dealing with them in a view that is in proper size and proportion, views that you may not have had without these spiritual exercises and views that tend towards liberty.
The ideal is to spend time immersing in prayer, and take the deeper understanding and freedom found there in the mirror of hope, and then bring it into daily affairs and other upcoming matters as you go about your business whatever it might be and whatever it might entail.
But as mentioned in this section of James, this is an ideal that isn't always or automatically going to happen
But in this verses, that there is a reference of going forth in freedom after looking in the mirror, means that t.he law of liberty spoken of is first found in the realms of prayer, meditation and hearing and pondering the word, activities which stir up and welcome the laws of freedom
Freedom is found in the first place in looking into the mirror of hope.
An understanding about prayer is the freedom that is found within it.
Prayer doesn't have to follow and all types of prayer are welcome before the Lord in that freedom.
There is the freedom aspect of being with the Lord in prayer, and the activity of prayer tends towards freedom and occurs within freedom.
It goes against that which might ensnare and that which brings us into captivity in its myriad forms.
In the exodus from Egypt, the captives were set free, and this is a spiritual principle that applies to individuals who can be in any way captive and need to be set free with the guiding hand of power from the Lord.
But the exercise of prayer, meditation and hearing the word while occurring in lye context of liberty doesn't always automatically follow into adhering to the law of liberty or follow through into further liberty.
The modern world presents many possible distractions and not a lot of them good and these verses show that looking in the spiritual mirror of hope, and finding hope right then and there, isn't always carried forward as people forget and do not take further heed and move out of freedom into harmful areas, ill found project and ideas that do not have a Godly origin or intention.
This happens out of the freedom of choice which always remains.
The ideal is to look in the mirror of the spiritual world and remember what was there.
And then to carry that liberty forward.
But if you divert from the paths of liberty, you can always go back to the mirror again and again.
This isn't really backtracking in the sense that the good found there in the mirror, was real then and it was a real experience that took hold in reality. The ideal is to walk forward from the mirror in the Spirit of Freedom accompanied by good works and continuing on the exercise of faith and hope in the mirror, seeing further and in a sense seeing from glory to glory on the road of glory.
Just about everyone will at least some of the time fall short of this ideal.
But the outline of what to look for is there in these verses.
It is good at least to find the mirror in the first place but also to remember not to forget and keeps it going but the loop can be revisited and the mirror of prayer, the mirror of the word and meditation can be sought and found again and again.
So it is like someone who carries a mirror because they are not fully trusting of their own remembrances.
The goodness found in prayer can be brought forward into more goodness that the Lord has for you always in his power and in his might.
Revisit that grant vision of hope that the Lord has for you in the mirror of hope, where you are seeing and believing in the spiritual realm, and going forth in all the goodness found both within and without, despite the remaining patches of darkness.
The Mirror of Hope
By: Joseph Jagde
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