Isaiah 29:15

Alfred Shropshire Isaiah 29:15

Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

Of course, believers know that the answer to these questions is an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God. Whether we are firm believers, lukewarm believers, or unbelievers, we still have to face ourselves in the mirror each day and God's judgment in the future.

A poem from the Internet some years ago, the author is unknown.

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able, as the days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye.
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for things I have done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf,
A lot of secrets about myself.
And fool myself as I come and go
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of man I really am.
I don't want to dress myself in sham.
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at me and know
That I'm bluster and buff, an empty show.
I can never hide myself from me.
I see what others may never see.
I know what others do not know.
I can never fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.

Prayer:
"And would some Power the small gift give us To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion: What airs in dress and gait would leave us, And even devotion." *
*(Robert Burns "To A Louse")