It seems cliché, but it is true. Do you know that God made YOU beautiful? Can you look in your mirror and say to yourself, “God made you and you are beautiful”?
I remember driving down the streets of Toronto, headed for church about 10 years ago. It was beautiful morning and I was excited about what the Lord was doing. As I looked at the women on the busy sidewalks, I heard the Lord ask me about us, women. He asked how many Christian women choose to live with shame or fear? Do we carry with us any kind of hindrance that blocks us from seeing the beauty that God has put in us? The Lord included me in these questions. He included us all--even mature, Christian women and leaders. Do we know Whose we are and who we are in Christ as much as we could? Do we have something in our lives that holds us back? Or could we let something creep in to hold us back? I know that when the Lord asks questions like these, He sees and knows the answers. Looking at the world today, there is an urgency for us to confident in our beauty and preciousness to the Lord.
God has made us. Genesis 1:27 says “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” God created each one of us in His very own image. That means, if you will, God looked at Himself and then created you. You might argue that that verse is referring to spiritual things. True, but when God created you in His image, it was not for us to go through life with shame, guilt or fear. God looked at His beauty and then created YOU to have His beauty, inside and out.
Psalm 139:14 says “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Every part of you is wonderfully made. Do you believe what God says about you? Or do you believe your emotions or what someone else says? 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “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.” As women, we must see what God sees. We must know that God sees us.
We must know that we know that God has made us. Why? Because attacks will come. Take, for example, the extreme lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccine passports we endured in Canada. Toronto was especially diligent, militant and strictly enforced mask wearing and restrictions with the threat of fines and arrest. Regardless of whether those measures were necessary or not, it was hard, fearful and oppressive for everyone. It felt stifling. People soon stopped seeing each other as people who mattered…even Christians. This change in how we lived in Toronto and throughout all Canada did something physical, emotional and even spiritual that seemed to have nothing to do with disease prevention. It was an attack-- demonically inspired to rob us of identity, relationship, peace, confidence, and self-worth in the middle of the attack on our physical health.
Ladies, tests and trials will come to steal the Word. But we must know and remember God’s beautiful creative miracle: YOU.
Take the opportunity to get stronger today. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” When we renew our mind day by day with the Word of God, it’s the truth of the Word that changes our heart. His truth should be our truth.
Jesus redeemed us. Ephesians 1:7 says “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace”. No guilt or shame should restrain or hold us back. The Blood of Jesus frees us and beautifies us.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Focus on the new, beautiful you in Christ every day.
You are BEAUTIFUL!
- Pastor Cheryl Ward