Jesus Unfiltered

What are you filtering God and His word through, and why does that matter?

When I was a child, my mother once told me I had no filter. You know what I’m talking about. It’s like the time my precious, then 5-year-old daughter, totally embarrassed my wife at the store by pointing and loudly asking, “It a boy or a girl?” No filter.

I’m sure I also humiliated my mom plenty of times with similar ‘in the head, out of the mouth’ moments. So one day, she brought out an orange juice strainer. This happened in the mid-80s, before our family bought pulp-free OJ. 

First, she reminded me that if I wanted my beloved pulp-free OJ, we had to run the OJ through the strainer to make it pulp-free. She said that similarly, I needed to pour my thoughts through a strainer before they became words. That way, my thoughts would become words that were free of things that could unintentionally hurt others.

Though as children we react to many life situations in an unfiltered way, the older we get the more filters we develop. Significant disappointments and shattered dreams often radically shape our worldview and beliefs about God.

Were you significantly hurt by your earthly father? Or, have you experienced a significant loss in your life? A significant loss where you desperately prayed for God to save that person or that aspect of your life, yet those prayers went unanswered?

Is it possible that season of grief altered your perception of God so that now you view Him as less than trustworthy? Is it possible that intense season of disappointment created a filter that has forever changed the way you pray? Do you now keep your expectations very low when you pray so that you aren’t so terribly disappointed ever again? Do you now feel like the most practical filters are your experiences and gut feelings?

I can empathize with those filters. They seem to make sense. They are ways we try to protect ourselves. They are methods we use in the attempt to keep our truest selves safe. However, those filters only make sense from a non-biblical worldview.

The Bible calls us to look at things from God’s perspective. The way things actually are. God calls us to take all of our experiences, all of our understanding about life, death and God, and filter them through lens of Jesus Christ. As Colossians 1:15 says, “He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God.”

Third century Christian apologist Tertullian explains this need for new filters well. “Jesus Christ our Lord … has determined for us, the disciples of the New Testament … it was needful that new wine should be laid up in new skins. … In the Father the Son is invoked; ‘for I,’ He says, ‘and the Father are One.’”  Tertullian 203CE Volume 3, p. 1184-1186 [CD-ROM]

So, how do you feel about Jesus? Jesus willingly was tortured and murdered to ransom you out of the kingdom of darkness. Is that someone you can totally trust with your life? Then Jesus says you can 100% trust God the Father and His word.

No matter what disappointments you’ve experienced, Jesus has never and will never let you down. And, He perfectly reveals our heavenly Father who is equally faithful. So may you let Jesus strain out the lies your disappointments have led you to believe in. May you let Jesus become your new filter by which you view everything else.