Cupboards …the LORD sees not as a man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. – I Samuel 16:7
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Several years ago I had a dream where I was told that the Lord was coming back to inspect our “cupboards.” I took the cupboards to mean that He was going to inspect the hidden corners of our hearts; the shelves where we keep our attitudes, godly or not. He’s going to throw open the doors of those cupboards and carefully inspect the contents seeing if the things we are harboring there are pleasing to Him. More recently I had another dream where I was told this; “God’s people appear righteous on the outside, but inwardly they are full of sin.” |
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We are saved by grace, but we will all stand before the judgement seat of Christ to be rewarded for what we have done or not done in this life. Again, God sees the inner sins that defile us; bitterness, unforgiveness (which can delete our salvation, Matthew 6:14,15), lusts, resentment, jealousy, pride, etc. If we love Him, we always have to guard our hearts and minds from the things that are contrary to His word. We must be keenly aware of who we are in our inner man and examine ourselves on a daily basis, for if we judge ourselves we shall not be judged (I Corinthians 11:31). We have to be able to swing those cupboard doors wide open and clean out the moldy refuse of our vile human natures. We do this by recognizing that they are there, and confessing those sins to the Lord; then we hand them over to Him to remove. I want the Lord to be pleased with what He sees in me. It’s important to consistently behold ourselves in the looking glass of His word in order to help us recognize where our inner man needs adjusting. If we don’t, we will end up with shelves lined with the crud of a religious spirit that resists the changes that matter most to the Lord. Sometimes it’s really hard to recognize the areas that need correction. We’ve stored these adverse collections in our cupboards for so long, we can be deceived into thinking they belong there. We can end up justifying their existence, which is another sin in itself. Therefore it is vital for us to acquire the proper cleaning equipment for examining those dirty cupboards. All we have to do is open a container of humility and apply a generous amount to the dust cloths of our minds and hearts; only then will we be enabled to present our cupboards to our Divine Spiritual Health Inspector. Copyright 2018 by H. D. Shively |