Soup's on 😋 The heart reflects who you are

Proverbs 27:19

As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.

Today's proverb is telling us that a man is truly known by knowing his heart. 

That it’s not the outside image of a person that reflects who they are. 

It’s what they are in their heart that matters it’s the heart that accurately reflects who they are.

When we look into a pool of water, we can see the image of our face. And that image will be a reproduction of what we look like - at least what our face looks like.   

In a similar way the heart of man reflects man.  So, the question we need to ask is, "What do we see when we look into the heart of man?"

If we’re honest by looking into the heart of another we can often see ourselves better.

There are times when we look into the heart of man that we can see wonderful things. The heart of man can reflect the glory of God. 

The heart of men can experience the depths of love, compassion, kindness, and reflections of the God who created us. 

At other times we cringe in disgust as we see the depths of depravity in mans heart in the wars and the atrocities that have occurred because of the heart of men. 

And we are able to observe the extremes within the heart of man from the beauty of a mother embracing her infant, to the darkness of the most horrendous acts of violence and injustice. 

The Word of God helps us understand why mankind’s heart is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  

We are the direct creation of Almighty God, and as such have the capacity to reflect His character and person. 

But, when the first man, Adam, chose to disobey God. It was at that moment in history that the glory of God we were to reflect, was marred.

And without the Scriptures we are unable to grasp how just far we fell in that moment.   

And the result is a world in which death reigns and in which we see the heart of man at one moment blessing someone, and in the next cursing them. 

James (3:10) tells us, out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing, my brothers, this should not be. 

Yet because of sin that is what happens. This reflects our hearts

This is the reality in which we live every day. 

We may do good one moment - and in the next find ourselves doing what we never intended…

For you see it is only human pride that thinks we are different from others that thinks we’re better than others.

That believes, that we would never “behave in that way” or, “do anything like that!”

Our proverb today is telling us that A wise man will remember, “As in water face reflects face.”

A wise man will condescend to men of low estate, for he knows it is his own true estate, “so the heart of man reflects the man.”

Like it says in, Romans 12:16; Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

So, what is the lesson of wisdom?

The lesson is, that we can know others better by knowing our self.

For we know the good the peace and joy in Jesus Christ our Lord.

We know the bad the guilt and pain of temptation and sin.

And we know the ugly the instability of being double minded.

And by applying this lesson and we can understand the actions of others better so we can forgive them easily.  

No honest person can say, “No one suffers like me.” God has plainly declared that every man’s temptations are common, and not unique. They are more similar from man to man than they are different.