Who Are You...Really?

I teach a class through Fresno Pacific University called ET 735-Creating on the Web. This is one of the weekly devotional thoughts for that class.

Week 6: Who Are You... Really?

We have been talking about how we present ourselves to our profession. We should certainly work hard at that. We’ve been talking about all the reasons to do that
However, on the other hand, we should not take that idea so far so that we believe that we truly ARE what we present to others. God sees our heart, and we shouldn't live in a way that is putting on a mask all the time.

Samuel was tasked with choosing the next king of Israel.

The idea that physical appearance mattered a great deal must have been overwhelming.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭16:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Our time and culture certainly values physical appearance, but we also work very hard to put our best face forward online. Facebook pages are a person’s highlight reel. We don’t share our blooper clips nearly as readily!

God led Samuel to choose David, who was not physically impressive.

His Facebook page, and his online platform, would not have been very impressive, either, were he to live in our century.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Jeremiah‬ ‭17:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This means that you don’t understand my heart, meaning motivations, what drives me, etc.

It also means you don’t totally understand your own heart!

We should live in such a way that we don’t have masks with each other.

More importantly, we shouldn’t pretend that we can successfully hide who we really are from God.