So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them

Genesis 1:27 ESV

God created man and woman in His own image and likeness…

When God created man and woman in His own image and likeness, I believe we were born with a heart like His as well. Have you ever wondered at what point in our lives, our heart became different from His? At what point in our lives, this likeness was set aside so we can be someone else?

As I started work one morning, I thought to myself, what makes us unkind or unloving or ungrateful or judgmental and what makes us lose empathy. Was it our childhood, how we were brought up, our surroundings, how we were treated, maybe from someone we look up to, the crowd, people or friends we associate with or was it our past experiences in life?

Though we were given free will to decide for ourselves, we were also given a feeling of guilt and compunction and the ability to turn around and make our wrongs, right. But do we ?

Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways,
for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.

Proverbs 3:31-32 ESV

At our current time and in the age of social media, it is easier for us to judge, critic and praise with just a click of an emoji. An angry face, a laughing emoji or perhaps a thumbs up. But are they really for the right reasons?

I have had Facebook for quite a few years. It was good at first. But as years went by, I find it loud, chaotic and pretentious. It is a place where people can call others – names, celebrate defeat, thumbs up an insult and broadcast matters that should have been just for ourselves. It is a place where good deeds are videotaped and photographed for likes, shares and accolades. It is a place where all is good, everything is acceptable and everyone is right. It is a place where we lose ourselves and don’t even realize it. It is a place that thrives for the wrong reasons. A place where I quit wanting to be.

¹⁸ And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,^[a] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.^[b] For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

I am not perfect. I’ve done and said things that I know I shouldn’t and yet still did. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and am guilty of NOT being in His likeness. And today like in the past, I do my best to see that likeliness of Him in other people and strive to show His likeness of Him in me.

I pray we all do…

We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.

But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.

1 Corinthians 2:7 MSG

Blessings,