When my brother and I were small, our mother sewed chef hats and aprons for us and gave us jobs helping her in the kitchen. One of our jobs was to wash the dishes, and we would take turns.

One time my brother would wash and I would dry; another time I would wash, and he would dry.

Those dishes were exceptionally clean by the time we got through with them, because nothing brought greater joy to the heart of the one drying than to be able to return a dish to be re washed!

My brother would hand a dish back to me, and I would say, “That dish is clean!”

He would point to some tiny spot that had been missed and say, “You call that clean?” And back into the suds it went.

One thing I learned during my apprenticeship in the kitchen: If you get the inside clean, the outside is going to be clean too.

Jesus once used the same analogy to rebuke the Pharisees. He said,

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” Matthew 23:25, 26.

When God works on the sin problem, He goes to the heart of the matter–the heart of the person! This is one of the major premises of righteousness by faith. God is not in the business of putting bandaids on cancer. He knows that when the heart is right, everything else will fall into place.

We human beings are impressed with external obedience, because the outside is all we can see.

But God looks upon the heart, and no amount of external polishing can disguise the sin that is in the heart. Therefore only the cleansing of the heart has any value in His estimation.

A classic paragraph on this subject, written to our church a long time ago, shows up, of all places, in the book Counsels on Diet and Foods.

“The plan of beginning outside and trying to work inward has always failed, and always will fail. God’s plan with you is to begin at the very seat of all difficulties, the heart, and then from out of the heart will issue the principles of righteousness; the reformation will be outward as well as inward.” – Page 35.

There is a philosophy in the world today that you can find at every turn. It says that the way to change is to fake it on the outside for a period of time, and that if you continue to fake it long enough, the change will finally be internalized. For instance, suppose you hate your neighbor. Well, if you will just act in a loving way, sooner or later you will begin to love him. The same for a failing marriage: just act as though you’re in love again, and soon everything will be solved.

If you’re having a problem with weight, just act like a thin person, and soon you will be thin. If you’re having financial problems, just act like a millionaire, and first thing you know, you’ll be wealthy!

Positive thinking has been around for a long time. There’s just one problem with it–it doesn’t work. Lucifer was the first one who tried it; he said to himself, “I will be like God.” And he began trying to act like God, and ended up acting like the devil! Yet how many Christians have tried his method, hoping to act like God, act like Jesus, behave in a loving way? It’s a dead-end street.

On the other hand, if you allow God to work His miracle in your heart and change you on the inside, the outside will inevitably reflect that inner transformation. The inner change is available. It comes through beholding Him and allowing His Spirit to change the heart.