When the Lord Jesus came, He wore no mask. He was wholly what He seemed to be. In Him was found no guile. People came to Him pretending, but found they couldn't fool Him! He looked into their souls, showed them without saying that He understood why they wore their "mask." Gently, He helped them take it off, and the man behind it saw light as he faced the world honestly for the first time. When Paul saw himself as GOD saw him, he said, "I am the chief of sinners." (1 Timothy 1:15). In God's army we are all chiefs, no indians!God wants to show you what you are. It may take Him a long time, but He will stop at nothing short of perfection once you have let Him have your life. He can't start until you know the truth about yourself -- "In me, there lives no good thing!" Sometimes it takes us a lifetime to realize we ARE what God says us to be -- "sinners!" Once realized we can start being really dependent on God to make us all He wants us to be. We are like the ugly duckling. Until we despair of ever changing ourselves, God cannot make us into beautiful "swans."
~Winkie Pratney
(Youth Aflame p176)
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