One day a man was getting his windshield washed at a filling station. When the attendant finished, the man said, “That’s a terrible job. Redo my windshield–it’s as dirty as when you started.” So the attendant cleaned it again. The man looked it over and in frustration said, “That window hasn’t changed a bit.” The man’s wife was sitting next to him in the car fuming. She reached over, pulled off her husband’s glasses, wiped them, and gave them back to him. The gas attendant had been doing his job correctly all along; the man’s glasses was the problem.

Spiritually speaking, the glasses you’re looking through determine what you see, and how you see it. When you look through the lens of jealousy and envy, you become resentful of the blessings of others. When you look through the lens of judgmentalism, you speak and act without mercy and grace. When you look through the lens of fear and unbelief, you limit God and forfeit what He can do for you. When you look through the lens of selfishness, you put yourself first and your loved ones suffer. When you look through the lens of negativity and cynicism, people begin to avoid you because you’re not enjoyable to be around.

Just as your glasses need to be wiped clean from the contamination around you, so does your heart and mind. There is no place in His Church for racism, bitterness, hate and unforgiveness. Regardless of what any of us have been through in the past, we cannot let that rule our future.

There was no one that ever lived that had more reasons to be bitter than Jesus but He still loved us, even to the point of giving His life. How do we keep our hearts clean? Jesus said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). Our perspective on life is kept right by knowing Jesus, knowing His Word, and walking in the love of God. We cannot say we love God and at the same time hate our brother. It just doesn’t work that way!