05/25/2021
Do you look in the mirror and like who you see there? Do you see every blemish, every imperfection, and pray that they be removed from you? Perhaps you are even discouraged by them, becoming depressed, or cursing God for allowing you to remain this way. Well, you are judging yourself wrongly as man judges you, and have missed the amazing beauty that God has created in you, and in whose image you were made. You are missing the eternal beauty that only comes from within… from your spirit as it abides in Christ, and He in you.
“but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”
1 Peter 3:4 ESV
Peter wrote these words to the women of his day as he told them that their true beauty came from within them, and not simply their outer looks. These were good words for the women of Peter’s time, and they are just as relevant today. We might attract some people to us by our outward appearance, but we can change everyone who comes to know us by the beauty that we have been given within ourselves. If wives during Peter’s time could do this with ungodly husbands, then each of us can do the same with those who surround us every day.
“Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,”
1 Peter 3:1 ESV
I have known some exceptionally beautiful young women who have starved themselves to the point that they looked like skeletons, and have destroyed their health. They did this in a misguided attempt to look outwardly beautiful. The person they saw in the mirror might have looked overweight in their eyes, but their vision had been clouded by the fog of the world, and a desire to conform to it. Sometimes I wonder if the imperfection they saw was truly on the outside, or the result of not being able to grasp the inner beauty that God placed within them… a spiritual shortcoming manifesting itself in them physically. Well, I am not an expert on anorexia, or other such ailments, but I do know that these young women were already beautiful before they began to starve themselves, and that those I knew personally were inwardly beautiful as well. They had chosen to see the outside, and were neglecting what was within them.
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.””
1 Samuel 16:7 ESV
I watched a television show in which a tall, perfectly fit, and handsome, artist met with three wheelchair bound men who’s bodies were tiny, twisted, and misshapen. These men were also artists, and as I watched the show I wondered what they would paint, and how their deformity would play into the expression of the world through their art. What I saw amazed me… the subject of their paintings wasn’t something bitter or grotesque as they lashed out in anger over their physical appearances, nor was it some imaginary beauty, painted in an effort to ignore their plight… no, they painted their day to day lives, and the things in them that were beautiful in their eyes. What came out on canvas were curved lines, and abstract beauty… it was representative of the perfection they saw in themselves; what was within each of them. Most of us have deformities in our appearance, or our lives, yet all of us are equipped with a spirit that is amazingly beautiful, if we will only turn our gaze inward, and seek God there.
“And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.”
Luke 19:2-3 ESV
Zacchaeus probably wished he was tall and handsome, but he was not. Yet despite his physical appearance Jesus knew his heart, and that he gave half of his money to the poor, and did good things for people. Outwardly he was known to be a sinner, and unsightly, but inwardly Jesus saw much more… someone to be saved.
“And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.”
Luke 19:5-6 ESV
So today let’s explore the faith that can be found within us spiritually, and how we can strengthen it in order to reach out to those around us. Let’s be like the women of Paul’s day, and Jesus as he travelled and taught… let’s reveal who we are inside, and by the power of that revelation win souls, change lives, and receive not only the peace of Christ, but the joy of God, as rewards in our own physical selves.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for our inner being, our spirit, that longs to be perfected, and to be our focal point as we seek to know you, and to be as you are, through it. We thank you for the beauty within us that can’t be seen by the naked eye, but can be felt, and which impacts the lives of those we come in contact with. Help us Holy Father to be radiant in the beauty we exude from within, and impactful on the world that surrounds us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who knows our hearts, and sees the spirit within us that awaits the propellant of our faith in you, and Jesus Christ to carry it into the world. Praised be your name for overcoming our worldly imperfections with the light from our spirits within. You are merciful Lord, as you teach us to love what you value most in us… our spirit. Your grace through Jesus removes our sin, and heals the scars it has left on us; not only the physical scars, but the spiritual scars left by our worldly actions. Great are you who blinds us to the judgement of the world, and shows us the perfection you see in us through the blood of Jesus. Father, wash us clean in His precious blood, and open our souls, and hearts, so that his humility, and love, can flow like living water into the world of lost and dying souls. All Glory be to you our great and good King!
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV
Rich Forbes