Beautiful in God's eyes

We are masterpieces made in the image of God.

According to Psalm 139

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well. Psalm 139: 13 – 14

Yet distressingly an alarmingly high number of people believe or have believed they are ugly. They actually use those words. This may have been spoken over them or they have believed the lie of the enemy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet while we believe these lies our focus rests on our shape and size, our facial features and not on who we are in God’s eyes – his child, fearfully and wonderfully made.

In our image conscious Western world the ideal is to be thin, willowy with long gorgeous hair if you are female and tall, dark and handsome if you are man. I exaggerate the stereotypes but you get the picture. One leading UK store even uses size 4 mannequins to display its products.

We all struggle with self-image wishing we were taller, shorter, thinner, fatter, had bigger this or smaller that but God made us – unique and self-acceptance is a battle well worth winning.

Now that does not mean that God does not want us to look our best. In the past Christians were known for being dowdy and old-fashioned. They made a virtue of letting their clothes last a life time! But in our pursuit of looking good we must never forget what Peter said:

³ Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewellery or fine clothes. ⁴ Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 1 Peter 3: 3 -4.

Beauty comes from the inside out not the other way around. God built character displaying his love and the fruit of the Spirit is a wonderful goal. Look at Nick Vujicic the man with no arms or legs, nothing to admire in a physical way yet what God has done in His life with his character, attitude and motivational speaking is truly amazing.

All my life I have struggled with my weight – part of this is genetic – I come from families who were never tall and willowy but basically short and fat and part poor lifestyle choices in the area of eating. I’ve always wanted to be thinner and though I rarely followed a diet, I always wanted to lose weight.

I was bemoaning my inability in this area and the fact I felt fat and overweight when God told me quite clearly that my size and shape were not the issue – what was important was that I was healthy. The reason for this was not just because that is a good goal but He wanted me to be available for the long haul. He had much for me to accomplish. Self-induced poor health so often hampers what we can do for God. He told me to cut back sugar, eat as healthily as I could, exercise and focus on him not my size. I immediately asked God for a verse to encourage me. Straight back came this verse:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31: 30.

That settled it. Whenever I feel discouraged or start obsessing about food or weight, I quote that verse aloud to myself.

Finally I want to nail once and for all the lie that anyone is ugly. How can anything made by God be ugly? Despite wrinkles and flab and anything else we may deem undesirable, God loves us as we are. We are beautiful and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Our illimitable God

There is a wonderful description of God by Adam Clarke (an 18^th century theologian) quoted in The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It draws me back time and again.  It is so rich and inspirational and one of the things it says is that God is ‘illimitable in his immensity.’ My immediate reaction was no, you mean unlimited. I was wrong. There is a huge difference between unlimited and illimitable.  Unlimited means you have no limits which is true about God. Illimitable means you cannot be limited.

God cannot be limited by anything and anyone. God will be God. He will do what he will do. You can choose to put limits on God in your life but the person you harm most if you do this is yourself. By limiting God you limit yourself.

Too often Christians are fearful of what God will do if they open themselves up and say, ‘anything, anyway, anytime God.’ They fear if they give God that liberty God, like some hard taskmaster, will ask them to do something they hate, go somewhere they do not want to go and be someone they do not want to be. So often it is much easier to maintain the status quo than risk letting God do something that may completely change your life.

However, reading on with Adam Clarke he says, ‘(God) from his infinite wisdom can do nothing but what is eternally just and right and kind.’ God is good. He doesn't do anything  unjust, unkind or nasty. He only asks us to do things that are for our good and whilst they may be temporarily uncomfortable, in the long term they will be a source of great blessing. If he asks us to go somewhere that we do not think we will like, we can be confident that with God for us and with us, it is the best thing for us.  In fact that comforting thought can help us through difficult times.

God asked a family I know to move from South Africa to UK. The mother did not want to go but she knew God was in it so they could move with the confidence that if God was asking them to do something, it would be for the good of all. It wasn't easy by any means; in fact at times it was really hard but now, years later, God has used the whole family greatly and there has been wonderful fruit from their ministry. They could have limited God and stayed in South Africa. God would still have used them, they would still have been a great blessing but the best for them, was a move to UK, confirmed many times.

God cannot be limited and if we let him, he will be unlimited in our lives. When we limit God, we put a cap on all the possibilities that could open up. Do not let fear limit you. Anything is possible with God – now that should be a comforting and exciting thought!