But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
This is the way God sees humans / us. How do you ‘see’ people? Almost 99.99% of people SEE people with their physical eyes and immediately their personal ‘filters’ are in place. We judge by everything we see – looks, color, dress, body style, hair, and all of the other physical ways. Then we judge them by what we hear, smell, and feel. It’s the human ‘natural’ way of encountering things in our reality. But our ‘reality’ is greatly limited by what the actually reality really is. The unseen realm is God’s realm as well. We only see a sliver of the actual reality.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; 1 Corinthians 13:12a
We as humans also LOVE to ‘blanket judge’ people. If we can categorize someone, we definitely throw them into that ‘box’ and judge them all the same way. Whether it be by their political party, gender, race, ideology, job, the amount of melanin in their skin, the place they live, the school they went to, the amount of money they have, their age – and a myriad of other different ways. That way it is easier to just dismiss someone and allow ourselves to feel superior than everyone else we just judged. It is a NASTY human habit. IT IS NOT GOD’S WAY!
Have you ever just stopped and asked the Holy Spirit about a person you are seeing / meeting for the first time? Or the person you see on that screen? Can you actually stop yourself from immediately ‘tossing them into your prejudicial boxes’ and judging them? It seems this habit comes naturally to us. It definitely is part of our human nature to do so. So how do you interpret the following scripture in your life in a practical sense?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
How exactly are you a ‘new creation’ if you do everything the way you did when it was your ‘old’ self? How much is the Holy Spirit ‘reprogramming’ you? In what ways? Can you define it specifically? Do you still judge people without asking the Holy Spirit about them? Why wouldn’t you? Are you use to having an ongoing conversation with Him about all things throughout your day? Now if the Holy Spirit asks you to ‘pray’ for someone – how much do your ‘personal filters’ get in the way of that ‘act’? We as people fall back into our ‘old ways’ way too easily. We need to constantly ‘press forward’ with the Holy Spirit in being willing and humble, and asking for Him to reprogram us… each and EVERY day. Asking Him to SHOW us what He sees in individuals around us. Asking Him what HE loves about them. Are you willing to try do this? Let me know how it goes.