Recently, I was having dinner with a group of young married girls gathered around our dining room table. It had been a while since we had seen one another so there was a lot of catching up to do. Once the meal was completed, I asked the girls a question that went something like this, “So, what has God been teaching you since I last saw you?” One said that God had been teaching her to show respect and honor to her husband. Another said she had been reading a book for her discipleship group, and through that book, God had begun to reveal some things to her about herself. One by one they began to share and we were all amazed how many of the things God was teaching us overlapped. Perhaps it is because we are women!
One young lady, opened up about her struggle with losing weight; another voiced the same struggle. Then another opened up as to her battle through college with an eating disorder. I shared with them my own struggles and those of a loved one of mine who also dealt with an eating disorder throughout high school and college. The conversation was open, honest, raw and real.
Days later as I was pondering our sweet time around the table that night, I immediately thought of the verse in Psalms 139:, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
The Psalmist is saying that Yahweh, the Creator of this great universe, personally formed you the way He desired. He, God Almighty, carefully knit you together in your mother’s womb. David, the writer of this Psalm, rejoices in the wonderfully, fearfully created person that God fashioned him to be. He declares that he is one of God’s wonderful works. Deep in his soul he knows he is a special design and reflection of God himself.
What about you? Do you believe that God personally and intricately knit you together in your mother’s womb? Do you praise God for fearfully and wonderfully creating you the way you are? Do you believe, like David, that you are a wonderful work of God? Deep down in your soul, do you know that you are a special design created to reflect Christ?
Everything God desires for us as Christian women to believe about ourselves is counter cultural. If the world’s industries can convince women that they do not measure up, whether it is physically, socially, or academically, they make money—lots of money!! We have three enemies: the world’s philosophy on beauty, the devil, and social media. How can we be victorious over these? We must remain in God’s Word, guard our hearts, minds, and eyes, and limit our social media, e.g., iPhones, iPads, computers, and television.
Have you heard the expression that “beauty is only skin deep?” You will not find this in the Bible, because it is not true, and every word in the Bible is true. The beauty God desires for us is a deep radiant beauty, one that reflects His beauty and His nature. It flows out of the depths of a heart fully devoted to Christ—the Creator of all things beautiful—you and me!
Father, thank You for fearfully and wonderfully creating me. I praise You for making me in Your image. Guard my mind against the lies of the enemy when he tells me that I am not beautiful, against the world’s false philosophy on what true beauty is, and against the onslaught of social media pressure to conform to the world. Help me to possess a deep abiding radiance that not only reflects You but draws others to You. Amen!
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 ESV
“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
Dianne