“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy – full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.” (Matthew 23:25-26 NLT)
The faith for which I long is authentic, pure, unaltered by my efforts to make myself look better than I am. Jesus wasn’t a fraud who sought to portray something He wasn’t. In all His purity, everything He said could be authenticated by the heart from which it flowed. There was no pretense, no fronts, no covers, no efforts on His part to hide anything that might “blow His cover.”
Who you saw was who you got, and I believe that’s the way He desires for us to live as well. There’s no place in the life of a child of God for pretense or phoniness. Comparing ourselves with others is a recipe for disaster. Our only comparison needs to be with our Lord, and when we fail to live up to His exacting standards, ideally, it will increase our dependence upon Him.
Let the beautiful and challenging words of Ray Majoran’s prayer move your heart as they moved mine: “God of Mercy and Unshakable Truth, You don’t ask for appearances; You ask for hearts. You’re not impressed by surface-level sacrifice — You long for mercy (Matthew 9:13). And yet, we so often default to polishing the outside. We say the right things, put on the right masks, and keep things looking together — even when our motives are tangled, and our hearts are cold. You see all of it (Hebrews 4:13). By the work of Your Holy Spirit, please disrupt our desire to perform. Confront the pride we’ve disguised as strength and the indifference we’ve painted as peace.
Where we’ve made our faith about presentation, call us back to transformation. Clean the inside — the places no one else sees — until what overflows is mercy, not personal image. Teach us to value what You value: integrity over approval, obedience over optics, and love over religious routine. Remind us that a clean cup is useless if it’s only clean on the outside. We don’t desire filtered faith — we long for the real thing. And as You do the work within us, let whatever people see on the outside be a natural reflection of what You’ve made right within.” (See Glimpse of Infinity Clean – 04-02-25)
At the end of the day, who are we trying to please? Whose approval are we most seeking? Whose applause? Whose affirmation? What concerns you most? How you’re perceived or how you really are? What motivates you to become better? Another’s perception of you or the smile on your Savior’s face? What drives you? Your heart for God or your desire to please others; to get ahead, whatever that may look like, or to grow in your likeness of Jesus?
I’m so tired of pettiness and fraudulence among believers, aren’t you? I’m sick of my own dependence upon the approval of those whose opinion of me has become so important. I want to be free of the shallowness of social acceptance and long for the purity and power of a heart so focused on Jesus I no longer care what others think.
Isn’t it time we cared less about the façade and focused more on the foundation? Like our father in the faith, Abraham, let us confidently look forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. (Hebrews 11:10)
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 