Taking Off The Mask

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1 Sam. 16:7
“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

Halloween just passed by, and everyone is ready for Christmas!
I’m only kidding a little bit.
People are preparing for Thanksgiving, and some are out buying presents already.
But let’s go back to Halloween for a few minutes.
In the weeks approaching it, excitement was building and, soon, people were going to be dressing up in costumes and wearing masks! They’ll be having fun pretending to be whoever or whatever they chose! Little boys will happily put on the superhero costume they begged their parents for and little girls will be running around with sparkly dresses and wands, leaving a glitter train behind them as they tell everyone that they are a princess for the night.

When I was younger, that was my favorite part. Dressing up! I got to stand by the door and hand out candy while I pretended to be a ballerina, a cowgirl, a vet… even a hippie! But there was a problem… the whole time, I was just pretending. I wasn’t being myself.

Halloween isn’t the only day that people wear masks. In fact, they are something we wear daily, wether we realize it or not. We wear them in front of our friends, our coworkers, and our family.
We wake up, stretch our legs, and slide the masks over our eyes.
We even wear them in front of God.

1 Sam. 16:7 shows Samuel as he is choosing a new King. He asked Jesse to bring out his sons so he could look them over to choose. However, Jesse brought only those he thought were the best of the best.
He brought the tall son, the strong son, the handsome son…

God wasn’t happy with those choices.

He told them that, while they look on the outward appearance, He was looking at the heart. And none of the sons that were brought before Samuel passed.
God can see beyond the mask that we put on to see what’s in our hearts.
We all have sins and flaws, and we don’t want to show them to anyone. But until we take off the mask that hides them, God cannot help us.

There’s this song called “Welcome To The Masquerade” that I’ve loved for a long time. It always spoke to me, and when I sat down and took a deeper look at the lyrics, it spoke volumes.
One of the verses says “I’m not one to scare the masses, but there are some things that will melt the plastic. Try and dig down deeper if you can”.

This is powerful, isn’t it? And so true. Jesus said something very similar in Luke 12:2… check this out,

Luke 12:2
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”

Luke 12:2 states that there will come a time that everything that is hidden will be revealed.

What kind of mask are you wearing today? Maybe you’re pretending to be okay when really you’re hurting deep inside. Or, maybe you’ve been struggling with an addiction, or a fear, and you’ve been covering it up hoping it will just… go away.

I don’t want to hide anything from God. I don’t want to go through the punishments that follow… If we don’t freely take off the masks that we wear, God will melt the plastic of the mask and expose what we’re hiding from him.

We have to see the urgency of this.
Time is running out. And, soon, we won’t have a choice anymore. But God loves us enough to give us an opportunity to follow Psalm 51:10 and invite Him into our hearts to help before it’s too late…

Psalm 51:10
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

What will your next move be?