My Epiphany On Beauty...

Several weeks ago I posted a blog about how my body was doing crazy stuff and how I was gaining weight despite a very careful and healthy diet and the most intense workout program I've ever participated in. Well, as I continue in that 6 day/week exercise program and as my body continues in a number of ways to be very abnormal, God continues to work with me and convict me about the foolishness of worrying over my physical body and weight.

This week I studied Isaiah 60 pretty extensively. Though this is a chapter that literally prophesies about the future Kingdom of Christ and God's promises to Israel, God showed me great personal application regarding the concept of the physical man vs. the spiritual man. I hope what He has shown me will convict, enlighten, and challenge you as well.

Throughout Isaiah 60, the people of Israel are told that the "light," the "glory," the "brightness, " and the "splendor" of the Lord was upon. Because of this all the nations of the earth would proclaim the praise of the Lord and honor the Holy One of Israel. Because of the presence of God within them and upon them, the entire world would be drawn to them and to the living God. What splendid beauty these people must possess to be that influential and that attractive!

Then it occurred to me - this is how I am to live. I am to allow the light, the glory, and the splendor of the Lord to so radiate through me that I possess the truest and most powerful form of beauty everywhere I go. Not the beauty of the most stylish clothes or the most chiseled figure or the most clear complexion - but the most beautiful beauty of all: that which flows from a heart overflowing with love and obedience to Jesus. When I pursue and emphasize the cultivation of this sort of spiritual beauty in my life, I will be most capable of attracting others to the Holy One of Israel. When I focus on allowing His splendor to fill me rather than focusing on the external shape or condition of my body, others will see Him in me and be captivated by His beauty. They will see and want the radiance that I have. They will be drawn to Christ.

I must come out from under the deception that my physical body is worthy of such worry and such attention that I neglect the constant growth of my spiritual beauty.

I have been created for the display of the Lord's splendor (Isaiah 60:21). To wish for the display of personal physical beauty more than the influential beauty of His indwelling Holy Spirit is wrong.

I am awake and alert.
Alert to the enemy who would have me to focus on me.
Alert to the system of the world which tells me the lie that physical beauty is, above all things, prized.

I am ready to lay down the emphasis and worry that I've given to my physical body. It will do what it will do. God is sovereign over my body, and I need not concern myself with such temporal matters.

I will instead embrace Isaiah's command:

"Arise, shine, for your light has come... the glory of the Lord rises upon you... the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you... He has endowed you with splendor."

Isaiah 60:1, 2b, 9b