Millions of dollars are spent every year on products that come with the promise of restoring youthful complexion, hiding the wrinkles, firming the skin, hiding the gray. Yet the hard fact is that sooner or later we are all going to age and there's nothing we can do to reverse the evidence of this in our bodies... or in the mirror.
People tend to base their "worth" on their looks. You find this a lot in the work place. It's the younger and "beautiful" that get noticed and get the promotions first. In schools, its the pretty that are the popular. Society dotes on the attractive. There's big bucks in beauty. Where does this leave the rest of us? Probably feeling pretty low and worthless. Those in abusive situations or healing from violent relationships are going to feel this especially so. When you've been told for years that you are ugly, no good, worthless, a waste of air and space...you start to believe it. However, the reality is that you and I are priceless to God!
It's not that we come to God with anything of worth to offer Him. We are priceless to Him because the price for our lost souls was the death of His beloved Son. The world might not think we are anything of worth, but in the eyes of the One who counts the most, the One who loves us the most, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Designer, Creator of the universe, we are beautiful.
I am valuable, God loves me unconditionally...wow, isn't that amazing! I want to share with you some Scriptures that I love because they remind me how the Lord thinks about me...imagine, the Almighty God thinks about me!
Psalms 18:6 "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ear."
Psalms 40:17 "But I am poor and needy: yet the Lord thinketh upon me: Thou are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God"
Isaiah 41: 9b, 10 & 13 "Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee: yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."
Lamentations 3:58 "Oh Lord, Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life."
Before the Lord of Hosts you and I do have worth through His Son. God doesn't judge as man does, by appearance.
l Samuel 16:7b "For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart."
For years, and by most I have been judged because of my weight. I have even been rejected by some Christians. It's hard to sit in a church and know that your brother or sister in Christ across the aisle wants nothing to do with you because of how you look.
I tend to forget that God views my heart and to be honest more shame needs to be felt because of that then of what people think of my appearance. There are days when the crippling of my heart because of unconfessed sin is more disabling then the state of my outward shell. We need to stop depending on the mirror and our outward appearance so much, and instead turn to the Word of God, and work on letting His beauty shine forth through us. Now that kind of puts Oil Of Olay into perspective doesn't it!
Our God measure man by a standard divine,
For He see underneath every outward design,
He looks past possessions and costly attire,
He studies the heart - every thought and desire.
Our God does not judge by how tall we may stand,
Or how much we possess, or the rank we command,
His gaze goes far deeper to things that endure;
He honors the man who keeps his heart pure
For the eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro.
We have no secrets that our God does not know.
Our Father knows our thoughts; He understand every part,
Man see the outside, but God sees the heart.
Jamie Turner
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