Appearance
Pastor Jerry Wilhite,
author
Appearance is something we all have to deal with and unfortunately we also judge others by it. We allow our eyes to deceive us based on what we have learned, heard, etc that the appearance of a person should be.
We tend to judge people based on many things:
I think you get the idea. I am sure I have overlooked a few such as if we have a birthmark and where it is located, any deformities, etc.
In previous studies I have dealt with the problem of judging or pre-judging others and our selves. The problem is that we judge a person based on their appearance. Think about it how often people judge based on color, weight, size, etc. What is sad is that if you strip away the flesh the real person is seen and we would see the truth and what the truth is we are all basically the same.
If a person could see beneath the appearance into the heart and soul of a being, what they will see is love, joy, sadness, desires, hope, and most of all a beautiful person, more beautiful than the cover can ever be or hope to be. Do not allow their cover to cause you to pre-judge a person.
If a person is a different color, weighs more or less, is short or tall, etc, it does not really even begin to tell you who they really are. If you looked at me over the years you would see someone who was overweight, somewhat slim and trim, tanned, not tanned, with glasses, without (contacts), hair combed back, hair straight, curly (naturally), short hair, long hair, etc. None of that is who I am. If you met me when I was angry in the past you would have thought I was evil.
The person I am inside is one with desires to know God and to bless others. I have desires to be able to bless others first with a relationship with God, then bless them with the help they need in every area of their life. I would love to do all these things, and to a point I am naive, so naive I have been taken in by many and will more than likely be taken in again and again. But you know what? It does not matter because they did not know what they were doing. To blame them or not to forgive them would be worse than if I had done what they did because I do know better. Since I am no saint and have done things wrong in my life and I am sure I will have to seek forgiveness in the future from God I can not hold anything against another. This is what makes a relationship with God so necessary and the only way to live. Otherwise I could become vindictive, unforgiving, vengeful or worse. But with a one on one relationship with God I can seek Him for guidance, not to tell me who is evil and good, the spirit does that naturally, but to guide me in how I live and treat others. I have learned not to judge and definitely not to judge based on appearance. The return has been a richer fuller life because there are more in my life than there would have been before.
Think of the bad in your life, the problems, the sad days, etc, and then think about how much less a day may have been bad or how less sad if you had more people in your life and, even more so, God in your life.
No one has actually saved my life that I may not have been a friend with if I were judgmental, but are you sure that one of those you are judging or condemning may not in the future save your life. Who knows what a relationship could be in the future with someone you might not consider as being a friend now? Do not close a door; always seek the doors that are open to you to be opportunities not problems. When you consider them to be problems you shut them and in doing so you shut the doors on your future, life, hopes, and desires.
I ask you now to consider what I have said, and read below what the definitions of hate, animosity, enmity are and consider what they do to you when you replace love, joy and peace with these. Love and hate can not survive together, neither can animosity and joy or enmity and peace. It is your choice.
The truth is hate, animosity, enmity, etc are what takes a person to the pit of Hell itself until they reject them and replace them with love, joy, peace or they die and spend eternity in torment. Hate is the beginning of torment. Hate leads a person to eternal torment starting here on earth. If for no other reason than for yourself start now by getting the hate out.
Ask Jesus into your life. Pray the sinner's prayer, listed below, and spend time daily listening for and to the voice of God to guide you the rest of your life. You will discover in time that no matter how bad it appears (appearance) to be you do not notice it as before, most will even pass before you even know it has happened. No, God does not remove the problems, persecution, and bad days, but He does make them bearable and in time they are not as noticeable until one day you seem to float right over them.
Here are the 6 steps to love, joy, peace, and the deliverance from hate, etc.
I have in the past said this but it is worth repeating:
I do not believe anyone should just read the verses we list, but read all that proceeds and follows them. The only reason we do not list them all is due to the fact that one may need only a few while another needs entire chapters and this would make the study so long that some would be lost in them. So we leave it up to you to seek how much more or less you need.
No matter what you read, see, or hear including at godsgifttoyou.com do not accept it on my word or anyone else's word always seek God for understanding not man. We are here to help you grow closer to God and know Him on a personal basis. We are not the final word in anything, only God has the final say on or about anything.
Understand that Satan can use anyone or anything to mislead you. Only God can lead you to the truth. As much as I would like to say listen to me or take credit for anything I write, I can not because I would be wrong and not telling the truth. All I have, am, do and can do is of God, not of me. I do not say this to be humble, but to state the simple truth.
John 3
3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3
16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 14
26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
1 John 2
27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Matthew 7
1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Mark 11
25. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
2 Corinthians 10
5. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Romans 10
17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Matthew 6
5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Below are definitions of Hate, animosity, and enmity.
Hate
1.
To feel hostility or animosity toward.
To detest.
To feel dislike or distaste for: hates washing dishes.
v. intr.
To feel hatred.
n.
Intense animosity or dislike; hatred.
An object of detestation or hatred: My pet hate is tardiness.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
animosity
Bitter hostility or open enmity; active hatred.
A hostile feeling or act.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
enmity
Deep-seated, often mutual hatred.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.