By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
I was just thinking about going back to bed Sunday morning. My wife just had knee replacement surgery Thursday so she can’t be left alone yet for any length of time when the phrase “glitter without substance” just popped into my mind.
The illustration that came with it is of a balloon covered in glitter. It looks pretty imposing in size, but we all recognize that there is a very small amount of rubber below the glitter, and 1 decent poke and it will all explode into a few pieces of useless colored rubber.
Some days I feel like that balloon: all glitter but no substance. I can look like a good Christian, but, beneath the surface, well, that’s a different matter.
Below the surface, I find fear, anger, and unforgiveness. I find thoughts that can’t be exposed to The Light: malice, discontentment, and pride.
Doesn’t scripture describe Lucifer just like that? “For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation… I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’” (Isa 14:12-14) Discontentment and pride.
The Lord goes on in Ez 28:14-15 “You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.”
“Till wickedness was found in you.” That’s a terrifying thought. Lucifer was a great angel, once described as “son of morning,” until sin was found in him. I see his attributes in me…pride, arrogance, etc. I could easily be mistaken for the son of the “son of morning”…maybe more easily than the son of God that I am.
What about you? What do you see inside? Do you see grace, forgiveness, mercy, gentleness, holiness? I truly hope so. I wish I saw more of those attributes than the ones I seem to see most readily. It’s really depressing to see so little regeneration after 50 years of following Him.
Lauren Dangle has a song called “You Say” that I was listening to, and it described my situation and maybe yours: “You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing.
You say I am strong when I think I am weak. And you say I am held when I am falling short. And when I don’t belong, oh, You say I am Yours…The only thing that matters now is everything you think of me. In You, I find my worth, in You, I find my identity.”
Ps 16:8 is how God’s Word states it: “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” No matter what we may see when we look into our hearts, we must always remember that our heart lies to us. (Jer 19:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” Who can understand it?) We can’t look at what we see inside, we need to keep focused on Who is inside us…and that is the Spirit of the Living God.
Rom 8:31 “What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” And my primary foe is not Satan. My primary foe is my own heart. If we believe it, we can be easily persuaded to believe that we are the sons and daughters of Lucifer. We must learn to trust in the Lord’s description of us over what our heart says and even over what our eyes sometimes witness. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!….” (1 John 3:1).
No matter what you may see when you examine your heart, remember this:
“We should be called children of God! And that is what we are!…” Not glitter without substance, but children of God!
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.