To Be Still and Know...Beauty in God's Eyes
"Charm is deceptive and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised." Proverbs 31:30
Today I want us to take time to be still and understand God's standard of beauty. To not just read the words of the verses but let them sink in and apply them to ourselves that we might see ourselves through God's eyes and not the eyes of society. Society tells us we have to be a certain size and look a certain way outwardly to be beautiful. The billions of dollars that have been made in the diet supplement/diet program/fashion industries is really quite shameful when you think about it. All that money we spend on vanity, on an outward beauty that will not last and does nothing for the inward qualities of our lives, that could have been spent on things much more valuable...feeding the hungry, helping the homeless, overseas missions, etc. It is one thing to live a healthy life by eating a balanced diet and getting exercise, which we all should be trying to do, but another to put so much energy and focus on being thin or wearing the latest fashion trends. We cannot serve two masters and when our minds are so caught up in losing weight and trying new diet fads all the time or having to shop for new clothing and shoes to be "in" with the trends, we have become a slave to that and not to cultivating the kind of beauty God wants us to. It's a very tricky way Satan turns something good, healthy living and eating, into an unhealthy obsession which gets us distracted from what God wants us to do be busy doing. Trust me I know ALL to well about this as I have struggled with obsessive weight loss and eating in my past. It is something I still have to take before the Lord frequently to make sure I don't fall into that same trap.
So Proverbs 31:30 tells us that true beauty comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord means a healthy respect for Him and wanting to live our lives to please Him. So how can we work on practicing this in our lives? What does Godly character look like? How does a woman who fears the Lord act, react and live her life on a day to day basis? First this kind of woman submits her life to the Lord. (See previous blog post about letting God have the controls of your life! Click Here) This kind of woman spends time in prayer daily. Not the quick "God I need this, thanks!" kind of prayer, but heart felt, pouring your heart out, and then listening for God's answer, kind of praying. She spends time on her knees in prayer for not only herself and her family but for others needs as well and spends time daily reading the Bible, taking time to listen to the Lord. "Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom!" Proverbs 2:2-6a
"Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands." Psalm 112:1 Joyful obedience to the Lord is beautiful! We shouldn't obey out of obligation or fear of what happens if we don't. We need to fall in love with God so that obedience becomes something we long to do out of our love for Him. And the only way we can truly love God is to get into His Word and discover for ourselves His love for us and his awesome promises to us.
"All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech." Proverbs 8:13 Hate is a strong word, one we teach our kids not to say! But we are supposed to hate what is evil. Sometimes we hear the word "evil" and we think of really scary stuff, but evil is actually anything that is opposite of God's Word, any kind of sin. We are not supposed to ignore sin or embrace it. A woman beautiful in God's eyes, hates things that go against Him. She will come to realize that things such as gossip and holding grudges aren't pleasing to the Lord and will ask His forgiveness and help in ridding her life of these things. She will realize that losing her patience with her kids isn't pleasing to the Lord and she will ask for help to practice more patience with them. She will realize that harboring bitterness or jealousy isn't beautiful and will submit those things to the Lord and ask for His help in overcoming such things. She will learn to love what God loves and let go of things that He hates.
"Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit." Romans 8:5 Sinful things we think are not just lustful impure thoughts. Our minds are the most dangerous place for sin to run rampant because our minds are private and we can hide all our thoughts from everyone...everyone except ourselves and the Lord! Thoughts of anger and hatred toward another person are not beautiful qualities. "Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent." Psalm 4:4
Worry and doubt are not beautiful qualities God desires for us to have. He wants us to learn how to fully trust Him with all our worries and concerns. He wants for us to let go and let Him work the way he knows best. He doesn't want our minds to be filled with constant worries and fears. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." Proverbs 3:5-6
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7
God's standard of beauty involves us loving one another, not with a fake kind of love, but a genuine, even when it inconveniences us, kind of love. "Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." Romans 8:9-10
And here is a super hard one, loving those who hurt us or are spiteful or mean. The world certainly doesn't support this kind of love. They say you have every right to get even with people or write them off but God's Word says, "Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For Scriptures say, I will take revenge; I will pay them back, says the Lord. Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good." Romans 8:14, 19-21 Now that is truly beautiful! To truly forgive someone and pray that God will bless them, even when they have hurt you deeply. Wow! I need that kind of love in my life. I need God to cultivate that in me!
"Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love." Ephesians 4:2
"Don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." 1 Peter 3:3-4 I love the word precious. I do not know why, but I always have! To think I am precious to God just melts me. How are we precious to the Lord? By living in a gentle quiet manner, by cultivating inner qualities of true beauty!
Last but not least, be gentle and forgiving with yourself! We talk about how we treat others being important, which of course is true, but how we treat ourselves is just as important. God forgives you the moment you ask, so forgive yourself. Lighten up on yourself! We are our biggest critics and it shouldn't be that way. Measure yourself solely by God's standards, not the worlds and not what you think of yourself. We are going to mess up daily! We are going to blow it big sometimes, but God's mercy and forgiveness and grace is unending and unlimited. We have to let it go and not harbor bad thoughts about ourselves. Stop looking in the mirror and criticizing the way you think you look. Satan's winning when you do that. Get on your knees and pray that God will help you see yourself like he does...precious and beautiful! And it has nothing to do with what you are wearing or what that number on the scale says. It's has everything to do with who you are on the inside. Be the awesome, unique, beautiful woman God made you to be!
Today I want us to take time to be still and understand God's standard of beauty. To not just read the words of the verses but let them sink in and apply them to ourselves that we might see ourselves through God's eyes and not the eyes of society. Society tells us we have to be a certain size and look a certain way outwardly to be beautiful. The billions of dollars that have been made in the diet supplement/diet program/fashion industries is really quite shameful when you think about it. All that money we spend on vanity, on an outward beauty that will not last and does nothing for the inward qualities of our lives, that could have been spent on things much more valuable...feeding the hungry, helping the homeless, overseas missions, etc. It is one thing to live a healthy life by eating a balanced diet and getting exercise, which we all should be trying to do, but another to put so much energy and focus on being thin or wearing the latest fashion trends. We cannot serve two masters and when our minds are so caught up in losing weight and trying new diet fads all the time or having to shop for new clothing and shoes to be "in" with the trends, we have become a slave to that and not to cultivating the kind of beauty God wants us to. It's a very tricky way Satan turns something good, healthy living and eating, into an unhealthy obsession which gets us distracted from what God wants us to do be busy doing. Trust me I know ALL to well about this as I have struggled with obsessive weight loss and eating in my past. It is something I still have to take before the Lord frequently to make sure I don't fall into that same trap.
So Proverbs 31:30 tells us that true beauty comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord means a healthy respect for Him and wanting to live our lives to please Him. So how can we work on practicing this in our lives? What does Godly character look like? How does a woman who fears the Lord act, react and live her life on a day to day basis? First this kind of woman submits her life to the Lord. (See previous blog post about letting God have the controls of your life! Click Here) This kind of woman spends time in prayer daily. Not the quick "God I need this, thanks!" kind of prayer, but heart felt, pouring your heart out, and then listening for God's answer, kind of praying. She spends time on her knees in prayer for not only herself and her family but for others needs as well and spends time daily reading the Bible, taking time to listen to the Lord. "Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom!" Proverbs 2:2-6a
"Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands." Psalm 112:1 Joyful obedience to the Lord is beautiful! We shouldn't obey out of obligation or fear of what happens if we don't. We need to fall in love with God so that obedience becomes something we long to do out of our love for Him. And the only way we can truly love God is to get into His Word and discover for ourselves His love for us and his awesome promises to us.
"All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech." Proverbs 8:13 Hate is a strong word, one we teach our kids not to say! But we are supposed to hate what is evil. Sometimes we hear the word "evil" and we think of really scary stuff, but evil is actually anything that is opposite of God's Word, any kind of sin. We are not supposed to ignore sin or embrace it. A woman beautiful in God's eyes, hates things that go against Him. She will come to realize that things such as gossip and holding grudges aren't pleasing to the Lord and will ask His forgiveness and help in ridding her life of these things. She will realize that losing her patience with her kids isn't pleasing to the Lord and she will ask for help to practice more patience with them. She will realize that harboring bitterness or jealousy isn't beautiful and will submit those things to the Lord and ask for His help in overcoming such things. She will learn to love what God loves and let go of things that He hates.
"Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit." Romans 8:5 Sinful things we think are not just lustful impure thoughts. Our minds are the most dangerous place for sin to run rampant because our minds are private and we can hide all our thoughts from everyone...everyone except ourselves and the Lord! Thoughts of anger and hatred toward another person are not beautiful qualities. "Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent." Psalm 4:4
Worry and doubt are not beautiful qualities God desires for us to have. He wants us to learn how to fully trust Him with all our worries and concerns. He wants for us to let go and let Him work the way he knows best. He doesn't want our minds to be filled with constant worries and fears. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." Proverbs 3:5-6
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7
God's standard of beauty involves us loving one another, not with a fake kind of love, but a genuine, even when it inconveniences us, kind of love. "Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other." Romans 8:9-10
And here is a super hard one, loving those who hurt us or are spiteful or mean. The world certainly doesn't support this kind of love. They say you have every right to get even with people or write them off but God's Word says, "Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For Scriptures say, I will take revenge; I will pay them back, says the Lord. Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good." Romans 8:14, 19-21 Now that is truly beautiful! To truly forgive someone and pray that God will bless them, even when they have hurt you deeply. Wow! I need that kind of love in my life. I need God to cultivate that in me!
"Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love." Ephesians 4:2
"Don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." 1 Peter 3:3-4 I love the word precious. I do not know why, but I always have! To think I am precious to God just melts me. How are we precious to the Lord? By living in a gentle quiet manner, by cultivating inner qualities of true beauty!
Last but not least, be gentle and forgiving with yourself! We talk about how we treat others being important, which of course is true, but how we treat ourselves is just as important. God forgives you the moment you ask, so forgive yourself. Lighten up on yourself! We are our biggest critics and it shouldn't be that way. Measure yourself solely by God's standards, not the worlds and not what you think of yourself. We are going to mess up daily! We are going to blow it big sometimes, but God's mercy and forgiveness and grace is unending and unlimited. We have to let it go and not harbor bad thoughts about ourselves. Stop looking in the mirror and criticizing the way you think you look. Satan's winning when you do that. Get on your knees and pray that God will help you see yourself like he does...precious and beautiful! And it has nothing to do with what you are wearing or what that number on the scale says. It's has everything to do with who you are on the inside. Be the awesome, unique, beautiful woman God made you to be!
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