Girl, Change Your Face

     You can change your face, and you should.      

Constantly being barraged by people telling us that we need to become the most authentic version of our self, when we’re trying to stay focused on our need for Christ, is sort of like trying to swim up river. It’s exhausting. We will always need Christ, and while we know this, even becoming apathetic for a moment gets us partially drowned. 

What it means to be our most authentic self by a secularist perspective, is to do whatever feels right to us. We can create goodness in ourselves by good works, or we can create goodness for ourselves by casting off the restraints and opinions of others and becoming whatever we want to be.

     The doctrine of self is tightly bound around our hearts, and the Word of God is piercing joints and marrow, separating us from every false way our flesh seeks to divulge in. This is the separation of who we were without Christ, from who we are in Christ. It is painful to disentangle ourselves from what we sometimes even still hold very dear. 

     Being led by your emotions is going to drive you insane. Look closely at the transgender ideology, and what lies at its very heart is the idea that you can create yourself to be whoever and whatever you want, and that you will only be truly happy when you do. This is currently an extreme version of what happens when you embrace the ideology of self creation, though it is quickly being normalized by secularists. I use it as an example, because your worldview matters, and sometimes I think we need to be reminded of that. 

What I mean about that is that what you believe about God will determine what you believe about yourself and the world around you. Did God create you, or did you create you? Your answer to this will determine whether or not you believe God has any say over your life. If God created you, then what he has to say about what your function and purpose matters. If those things matter then how he expects you to act also matters.

The look on your face matters, and you can change it.  

When Cain realized that God showed regard for Abel's offering, and not for his, Genesis 4:5-7 says “Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry. And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It’s desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.’” 

I think of how God addressed the look on Cains face. This passage often comes to mind when my countenance falls. At times there is an acute awareness in me that sin is crouching at my door. God expected Cain to change his heart, and his face, as though they were one in the same. 

Choose to obey God, because you can and you should. 

     As a young teenager, I would travel with my dad on concert tours. I was a ‘typical’, young, self obsessed girl, going through a lot of hormonal changes. I wanted to stay at home with my friends. My dad would pack up the whole family into our big van, and we would drive for an average of 8 hours a day. We would stay in home after home, with family after family. We would often get out of the van after an eight hour drive, meet a new family, unpack our belongings, and head off to their church to perform a concert. 

It wasn’t too long into a tour in 2008 when it happened. I had been making sure people in the audience understood my dis-appreciation of my position with a sour, unimpressed face. It was there that the Lord met me. I don’t remember if it was through someone's comment, or whether it was through seeing one of my sisters performing, but He prompted me to change my face. I knew how to be expressive from choir practice, and was not inept at engaging the audience, and so it was that I became convicted that I was not honoring the Lord with my face or my heart when I was singing with my Dad. 

It became a prayer before every concert, that I would bring glory to His name, and be a blessing to these churches. I would drag my feet up onto the stage with my family, take a deep breath and start performing. At first it felt pretentious, to pretend I was glad to be there when in reality I was grouchy, and wanted to go home. But always, when I faithfully pursued blessing others with a happy countenance, I found I was actually enjoying myself. 

So as a young girl, I realized that you can in fact change your face and your heart. You can in fact find joy in obedience. And you will bring glory to God when you do it. So girl, change your face.     

Being obedient and relinquishing our hold on the sin we feel is part of who we are is always going to be hard, but through Christ is it possible to not only relinquish our grip on it, but also find the joy of the Lord in doing so. We know from the story of Cain and Abel that Cain did not change his face, and he murdered his brother. Sin is always crouching at the door, and we can choose to do what will please God, or we can sin. 

     Set your face to obey the Lord in spite of the earthly repercussions. 

Now, this may seem like an ambiguous call to be pleasant and nice all the time, but it’s a call to change your face to do what pleases the Lord. There’s more freedom here than you realize. The prophet Isaiah endured much abuse by people, but knowing that he was obeying God, he tells us, 

“But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.” 

    If you are obeying the Lord, it doesn’t matter what others think... You might choose to deny yourself and be called a fake, you might choose to take a stand against the genocide of the unborn and be called a terrorist, you might speak the truth about gender confusion and be called hateful, you might choose to avoid situations where you could be tempted to sin, and be called sheltered. People might malign you for doing any one of those things, but you can set your face like a flint, because you’re obeying the Lord. You needn’t be ashamed of anything when you are acting in obedience. If you have set your face to obey the Lord, let Isaiah 50 encourage you in this. 

     What I mean by obeying the Lord might also sound ambiguous. What do I mean by that? Should I pray and hope the Lord drops me a message? Not at all. The Living Word of God tells us what it means to obey the Lord. It shows us again and again what the Lord loves and what he hates. The Law in Exodus 20 is the revelation of God to the peoples of the earth. 

Deuteronomy 4:5-8 

“See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?”

The way God praises His laws should impact how we think of them. If we want to obey the Lord, we need to turn our face toward his laws and statutes. Jesus says that ‘If you love me, you will obey me.’ Let me be very clear, you don’t do these works to gain access to God. If you are thinking that way, I want to remind you that these works are a tribute of our love for God. They are not our point of access. We need to come to God in Christ, and that is the entire point of this article. Christ is the reason why we want to change our face, and he’s the reason we can change our face in any given situation, and find the joy of the Lord.