What our hands can teach us

I feel like I am the poster child for needing to be constantly tweaked and corrected by God.  He is always gently showing me places and ways that my heart is still not completely His.  He reveals to me wrong motives, hidden agendas, and distorted perceptions.  He brings me to repentance on an exhaustingly regular basis at times.  It’s almost like, there are times in my life where God is having to do a thorough “cleaning out,” of all the cobwebs, and gunk that has accumulated over the years.  I woke up this morning with just such a feeling.  I was thinking and praying about a situation and God reminded me of a simple physical fact that has tremendous Spiritual implications.   When you point your finger at someone else, there are always three pointing right back at you.

God has helped m in the past with this Image often.  I don’t know about anyone else, but my heart jumps to wrong conclusions about people all the time.  Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 7

 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.  

Now the fact that Jesus says this, and the physical fact that three fingers are always pointing back at me when I point at someone else; teaches me that I should spend at least 3x more effort in dealing with my own sins and short-comings.  I don’t know about you. but that leaves very little time to ever be looking at anyone else.  We are all sinners saved by Grace.  We are all in need of constant transformation by God.  We all get it wrong often and need to be taught by God to keep and meditate only on His perspective.  So let us choose to heed those three other fingers and let the Lord look at the hearts of others.

I have also noticed that when we have praying hands, they are all pointed toward the Lord in Heaven, and that is how our hands should always be, stretched out in love toward one another, and pointing us all to our precious Savior in Heaven.  Isn’t it amazing what our little hands can teach us