Unfading Beauty
3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry 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
I want you to think of how many beauty products you can name. It’s pretty easy to start rattling them off because you know their ads. Think of the shampoo, the moisturizer, the makeup brands, the jewellery stores and so on.
In the 1st century, looks mattered. Your clothes, your jewellery, your makeup all spoke to the people around you about how important you were and therefore how you should be treated.
Things have changed. Far more men now care a lot more about their outer appearance than they used to. But beauty, clothing and jewellery all speak volumes about us. Taylor Swift’s engagement ring has been valued at 1 million dollars.
Let me add one more piece. If you are perceived to be beautiful and wealthy, people don’t care whether you aren’t a morally good person. That’s not how God thinks. God’s eyes look to the inner person.
Which is both wonderful and confronting. For some of us, we can’t do much about our looks and we don’t want to. Maybe you struggle to control your weight or no matter how many beauty products, you don’t think you can compete with our society's version of beauty. It’s wonderful to know that God doesn’t care about superficial things.
On the flip side, this presents us with an additional difficulty. Makeup is a relatively simple way of covering up blemishes. Changing who we are on the inside, now that’s hard and you can’t just throw money at it.
But thankfully, God has given us his Spirit for free. And unlike some of the products on the market today, the Spirit is effective if we allow him to be applied to our inner lives. So, what is the Spirit saying to you today about your inner self? How are you going with the fruits of the Spirit.
Men and women, young and old, we all need to invest in the unfading beauty of our inner self which is of great worth in God’s sight.
Today:
Pray:
1 Peter 3:3–4
I want you to think of how many beauty products you can name. It’s pretty easy to start rattling them off because you know their ads. Think of the shampoo, the moisturizer, the makeup brands, the jewellery stores and so on.
In the 1st century, looks mattered. Your clothes, your jewellery, your makeup all spoke to the people around you about how important you were and therefore how you should be treated.
Things have changed. Far more men now care a lot more about their outer appearance than they used to. But beauty, clothing and jewellery all speak volumes about us. Taylor Swift’s engagement ring has been valued at 1 million dollars.
Let me add one more piece. If you are perceived to be beautiful and wealthy, people don’t care whether you aren’t a morally good person. That’s not how God thinks. God’s eyes look to the inner person.
Which is both wonderful and confronting. For some of us, we can’t do much about our looks and we don’t want to. Maybe you struggle to control your weight or no matter how many beauty products, you don’t think you can compete with our society's version of beauty. It’s wonderful to know that God doesn’t care about superficial things.
On the flip side, this presents us with an additional difficulty. Makeup is a relatively simple way of covering up blemishes. Changing who we are on the inside, now that’s hard and you can’t just throw money at it.
But thankfully, God has given us his Spirit for free. And unlike some of the products on the market today, the Spirit is effective if we allow him to be applied to our inner lives. So, what is the Spirit saying to you today about your inner self? How are you going with the fruits of the Spirit.
Men and women, young and old, we all need to invest in the unfading beauty of our inner self which is of great worth in God’s sight.
Today:
- How do you feel about outer beauty? Is that an area of struggle for you?
- Do you look to God for your self-worth? Rather than the world?
- How could you invest in your inner beauty today?
Pray:
- Praise the Father that he is beautiful in his character.
- Give thanks for Jesus Christ who shows us the beauty of Christ.
- Ask God for His Holy Spirit to help you and others to invest in your inner beauty.
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