Beauty
He gave me beauty for ashes, and it is in that verse that my heart is today. I have been through a trial, and yet the blessing within has blurred the trial. I have had a bad case of covid.
I was put in the hospital because I couldn’t walk. It was part of covid.
After a couple of days, I felt better. One night I couldn’t sleep. At 5 am, God began to talk to me.. I had been searching for what to write about in my next blog, and God began to tell me, not verbally, but in a still small voice.
At 5am I became so excited. God was there and He woke me up. I had not been so close to God in a long time. He woke me up out of my stupor. He gave me beauty for ashes, and I want to talk about that.
God made me beautiful! He gave me beauty! God, the King of the Universe, gave ME beauty! And, yet, do I believe Him? Well, I wasn’t. I looked at my face and saw only flaws. My eyes are too small, and I have two ugly brown marks on my brow. My lips are not symmetrical. Obviously, I wasn’t agreeing with Him!
Then there is the world’s idea of beauty. Everyone thought Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful, right? You looked at her and saw no flaws! Let’s look at your pastor’s wife. Beautiful? Flaws? Is she more beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor was? The world would laugh! How about you?
How about you? Are you beautiful? Do you look at yourself, and say, “No! I’m not beautiful!” like I did?
Well it is time to find the truth. Is the world right – was Elizabeth Taylor beautiful? How about the pastor’s wife? You? Me? Which is truth?
God is truth, and all men are liars (Rom 3:4). What does God say? He said He gave us beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3). He gave beauty to you and me. What about Elizabeth Taylor? I think there is a qualification, and that is you must be born again. We must look at people as God does – through His eyes. When He sees you He sees who you really are! He sees you in truth. He sees the beauty within, and He sees you perfectly! No flaws!
That is beautiful! So, who is right? God? Or the world? God or me? If I’m not seeing me through God’s eyes, I am wrong! Hey, guys! I AM beautiful! My heart is right, attitude is right, my yieldedness is right. I am saved! (Right, too!) The world sees my flaws, but God doesn’t see them.
Now with Elizabeth Taylor, she could have been saved, but I see no evidence of it. Her beauty was likely skin deep. So is our pastor’s wife more beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor? In God’s eyes, yes!
What about you? Yes! Yes! Yes!
Now we need a safeguard handle to hold on to. All around people are telling you to “think outside the box!”. What are they saying? I will put forth an opinion. To me, that box is God Himself! He created a place safe for believers. It is a hedge around us strengthened by His Spirit. His angels. Himself! He created a place safe for believers. Inside the box is security, protection, love, freedom and anything else we need. It is the Biblical world view, however, wolves in sheeps clothing have managed to infiltrate. They introduced the world view, and it is contrary to the Biblical world view. God is saying, why look outside the box? You need nothing else! Can you think of something better than I can provide? What answers are you looking for? Outside of God there are no answers. “Wake up, people!”, God is shouting in His still small voice. Listen!
Beauty is within His people, but His people believe the worldview too often. They think Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful, and “I am not”. Oh, if we could only just trust God, and nothing else, our world would change dramatically! We must return to trusting everything God says, and not think outside the box! Truth! God gave us beauty. Believe it!