In light of the current situation in our country with wearing masks for health reasons and people wanting to take them off, I began to think of other masks that people wear, and that it’s time to take them off too.  This post isn’t about the seen physical masks that people wear but about the unseen masks they think they are hiding.  Masks like jealously, bitterness, covetousness, resentment, grudges, shame, judging, and the list goes on and on.  You know yours, so pick it out and let’s see how to get the victory over these strongholds that keep us in captivity.

The problem with these kinds of masks is that they hide in our heart. While we usually monitor or control them while with others, close family members and friends get glimpse of them from time to time; but God sees them all the time. Think about it, controlling them does not mean we are free from them.

The solution to ridding ourselves of these masks is repentance, and believing God for the victory over their control in our lives. Our repentance must be sincerely and true and based on the fact that we want our heart cleansed not just to keep them out of sight from others.  The goal of repentance is to cleanse us from the sin, not to adjust our outside behavior while leaving the inside condition of our heart in sin.

As I was thinking about the solution for freeing ourselves from these masks, I remembered the words of Jesus in Matthew 23:25-27 where He was telling the scribes and Pharisees that they only cleaned the outside of the cup while leaving the inside full of extortion, self-indulgence, and all uncleanness. This tells me that people are capable of acting one way in public (the outside of the cup) and behave another way at home behind closed doors (the inside of the cup).  Perhaps this is one reason so many young people leave the church and walk away God; they see this double-standard of living in others who proclaim to be Christians but literally live alternative lifestyle – a double life – if you want to say it that way.

People, we need to clean up our lives starting with our heart, with true repentance so our witness is the same no matter where we are; church, home, workplace.  God wants people of integrity in His family.

The question is: are we sorry for the sin in our heart (inside), or just sorry that it was exposed (outside)?  There is no sin that God can’t or won’t forgive so there is no reason to continue wearing any masks that keep us isolated from God.

Look at it this way, any mask we wear is similar to the veil that was in the temple, it keeps us from coming into God’s presence. The people in the Old Testament could not freely approach God in the Temple because of their sin. It wasn’t until the veil was removed, torn down when Jesus died on the Cross for our sins that free access was given to approach God.

Our masks hide sins in our hearts and function like that veil; keeping us from coming to God.  The remedy for this problem is confessing our sin, receiving God’s forgiveness, and then begin to walk in the victory His has provided for us.   Go ahead, be brave, come to God, repent and receive His forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).