JMD Devotional 212 Titus 1:15,16 You See What You are

Vs 15 To the pure [in heart and conscience] all things are pure, but to the defiled and corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are defiled and polluted.

I used to argue with my psychologist on dream interpretation. Regardless of how bizarre the dream was, and who was in it, he emphatically stated that each element and person in the dream was really me. His premise was that human beings are so egocentric that we filter and distort information so it agrees with our prejudices and protects our ego. In the realm of one’s mind, it is all about us. One sad way this plays out is in the selection of things that push our buttons. The things that most upset you, that really get under your skin, that make you mad, and that you utterly despise in others are really character traits of your own. We put cosmetics on murderous hearts, we disguise our deceitfulness and excuse our laziness by projecting and amplifying and pinning these defects on our perception of others. Mark what makes you angry; revisit it before God and ask Him to reveal the condition of your heart. If your first impulse is to see the worst in others and the world at large—this applies to you (and me).

Vs 16 They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], but deny and disown and renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable and loathsome, unbelieving and disobedient and disloyal and rebellious, and [they are] unfit and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.

Dear God,
I am so quick to criticize, but the joke is on me. The one I deceive the most is myself; but You see right through my smokescreens. Help this person born in utter depravity to continuously be renewed in Christ. When everything around me appears fearful, ugly, menacing and wicked I have learned that the evil is on the other side of my eyes, it is internal, in my blood. Only a transfusion of Your holiness will save me; and whenever I disconnect the pollution returns. Help me to abide in You, and Your Holy Spirit in me; give me eyes of grace and hope and purity.
Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
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Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
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**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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