by Gail Rodgers
Susan had wanted the photo to be perfect. But it came back distorted and she realized she had moved at just the wrong moment.
Distortion is subtle. We often don’t know its happening. It’s a bending or twisting out of shape. It can happen in conversations, in creative projects, in paintings and in photos. It often isn’t even noticed at the time.
My husband laid some hardwood floor in our house last week. At one point several rows were down and we noticed an end in one of the boards had twisted out of place and a sharp edge appeared where it should have been smooth. Immediately he reworked the area to remove the distortion. It seemed small but in the overall view it would have distorted the look of the whole floor.
It’s much the same with our hearts. Jagged edges pop up of resentment, anger, negativity, self-pity and any number of little things we rationalize away. Left alone they will create a distortion in our hearts that will interfere with the picture God wants to paint of our heart in connection with Him.
Psalm 101:4 says “A perverse heart shall depart from me.”
In the original Hebrew language the word “perverse” means “distorted” and the word “depart” suggests to “sour” or “decline”.
Normally we would never view our Christian hearts as perverse and departing from God. We recoil at the thought! But here we are warned to be careful we don’t let our hearts become distorted. It can cause a heart to become sour and decline away from our God. Distortion is so subtle.
Are you feeling a sourness in your heart? Is there a slight decline away from your God and you are puzzled by it? Ask God today to show you if there is a distortion in your heart that you have allowed to come in by resentment, hurt, or some emotion or circumstance that has caused your trust in your God to falter just a bit. Ask for forgiveness and let God know you want a pure heart so you can see Him undistorted.
Prayer & reflection: Father God, I confess to You that I have allowed distortion of my view of You to creep into my heart by some relational or circumstantial difficulty I have experienced. I recognize my potential for a sour heart that can decline away from You. I don’t want that Lord. I ask that You would forgive my wrong attitude and heal my hurt. May I see You clearly and draw near to You with a pure heart today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
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https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2011/10/11/gr_distorted/