Right now I'm blowing my poor nose and rubbing my watery eyes...I've been sick. So when I look in the mirror I see the farthest thing from physically "attractive". A red nose, dry skin, half open eyes. But this doesn't seem to matter. God is restoring beauty, and forming beauty that perhaps has never surfaced in my life before.
Remember also in one of my last blog posts I was mentioning how "Forgiveness" is a step towards true healing and beauty.
Health and Beauty go hand in hand. They really do. You can't look your best on the outside if you are sick...even, sick or wounded on the inside. Beauty begins with love. Beauty, in - people, circumstances, begins with "real" love. As an example;
If You've ever see someone's face when they are "in love" with the one they plan to spend the rest of their life with...That love, makes them look even more beautiful on the outside, such as a glow to their face etc. That is because love shines from the inside out. Love can make anyone a beautiful creature. Love is the basis for Beauty. Love is forgiving, love is meek, love does not boast, is not proud, does not provoke to anger...Love...
Live in love, and you will live in Beauty, Live in Love and you will fulfill the law, Live in Love and you will live in Christ's example.
People will remember Beauty....because what people truly remember, is "Love".
And the greatest thing about this is; if you give Love, you will reap Love.
If you live "beautifully" aka "live in love" then you will reap "beauty" and "love" in your own life.
God wants to Love you. Let Him do it, and you will find yourself getting more than a make-over. If you let yourself be consumed in God's Love, if you 'lose yourself there', and trust God to satisfy your soul- then things can be transformed, beauty expanded, and God can heal you.
True Love enables Trust. Trust can only be preformed if there is the knowledge and belief in a degree of Trustworthiness. How do we know someone is trustworthy? God is trustworthy...Not only because He has always proved to be so, but because we know His Love for us goes beyond how "we usually tend to love"...God was always true, even up to sending His own Son. And Christ died for us, even "while we were yet sinners".
I want to encourage you, the reader, to find your Identity in Christ, and no longer in your own goals, nor in the lies of others, or the offers of the world, but instead to find it in a Love story, a Love story that involves "you losing your old selfish self, in the love of God" and "finding the more beautiful person he has made for you to be, by falling in love with Him". Sanctification is a process; Beauty is a process. For example; when you first believed in Christ and asked Him to forgive you of your sins, that black ugly chunk of cole that you used to be, suddenly was cracked open, fell off, just like a hard nut shell, and reveled a raw, precious gem underneath. Yet that stone is un-cut, un-polished etc. That is where your "life with Christ" comes in. Having a moment of decision to serve God for the first time, asking Him to forgive You your sins, to confess your belief in Him, is an amazing moment, and the start of a journey. It is not the end, but the beginning. We are like those raw precious stones after we come to God...We must let God continue to form us, sand us, and polish us. Just like that clay vessel on the potter's wheel, we must not think just because we've jumped on the Potter's wheel, that we are perfect...without being formed, spun, molded, polished etc. The same with Salvation, we cannot think just because we've taken the leap into faith in Christ that we are perfect...without letting God work in, on, with, and through - us.
There are things that we can never do to our selves to make us more beautiful, (more like Christ), and more into the person that we are meant to be, because there are some things that only God can do to us, that only God can preform on us, and inside us, and through us. Also some beautifying can only be done in, and through us - by Other People, Circumstances, situations...
Love "wows" us. It really does. And God, who is full of Love for us, likes to "Wow" us :) He likes to do things for us that we think are impossible. And God want's you to radiate in the beauty He knows can shine from you. He wants to restore you, heal you, form you, and let you shine like the Amazing Jem that you are. God has plans for you...Yes, He does. Plans for good, for your wellbeing, and "NOT" for evil. God does not have plans to distort you, to take a sword and make cuts to your realtionship with Him, nor is He like a vampire that wants to suck your life. God "wants" you to be blessed in every way, He wants to give you Abundant Living. But you've got to let Him, and you've got to have a relationship with Him. Evil and unrighteous: harm, brokenness, hurt, true ugliness, all comes from the Enemy and from sin. God is Light, there is no darkness in Him. God created you to be in perfect harmony with Him. Sin seperates us, yet because of the Love of God, through Christ Jesus we can come boldly unto the throne of Grace. I just want you to "expect". Be "Expectant" that God will Restore, God will heal, God will make you more into the beautiful person that you are meant to be...and have the potential to be! That you are inside! But, that beauty can never be shone, that potential can never be reached, or produced...if you don't surrender to the Crafter's hands. Yet, if you really Trust Him, beauty can be restored, and beauty can be formed from the ashes.
