Trust and Faith
Do you feel like the ugly duckling?
3 min read, approximately
“And it came to pass, when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely Jehovah’s anointed is before him. But Jehovah said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for [Jehovah seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:6-7)
Day after day, in society, magazine covers, news, and so on, we see the standards society has set for beauty, and according to these we are accepted or rejected. Some phrases based on these standards might be: ‘Wow, you’re fat or too thin!’ ‘You’re so short or so tall!’ ‘No one will love you; you have too much acne!’ ‘There’s always an ugly duckling in the family, and it seems to be you.’ ‘Oh, look at how they dress!’… We have heard society say these things and many more about us. The sad part is not that, but when we take those words, open our hearts, and accept them as absolute truth, ending up insecure and feeling defeated… We do not even turn to the Word to see what God says about it. Today we will see what the Lord thinks about beauty: \1. Beauty? Bah! The fear of the Lord is better:
“Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain; [But] a woman that feareth Jehovah, she shall be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)
\2. Beauty? Bah! It is not what we wear, but the state of our hearts:
“Whose [adorning] let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but [let it be] the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible [apparel] of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” (1 Peter 3:3-4)
\3. Beauty? Bah! I am a crown of glory in the Lord’s hand!!:
“Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” (Isaiah 62:3)
\4. Beauty? Bah! We do not love Jesus for his appearance, but for who he is!:
“For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:2-3)
\5. Beauty? Bah! Let us read this:
“Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
God created us unique and unrepeatable! For you and me, beauty… should mean reaching the stature of the perfect man (Ephesians 4:13). Will we remain insecure, or will we meditate on what God tells us?
May God continue to bless you
and may you continue to have an excellent day in Christ Jesus!
I invite you to stop by the Songbook