I attended a Bible study the other night at my churches’ women’s group and I was inspired to share it here. But I’ll give it to you in pieces over the next few weeks, otherwise I think it begins to overwhelm. This Bible study was written by Julia Bettencourt and it is called A Beautiful Woman in Christ. It begins like this- “‘Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.’ Proverbs 31:30 Some may have heard about the little boy who asked his mother why she was putting on cold cream. She replied that she was making herself beautiful. When she went to take off the cold cream the little boy wanted to know what was the matter. Was she giving up? That little boy misunderstood the concept of the art of becoming beautiful. Sometimes we as Christian women misunderstand God’s concept of becoming beautiful in Christ. There is nothing wrong with working on our outward beauty in itself. We are children of the King so why not look the part? We should always do our best and look our best but many times we forget about the inside and the way we project ourselves. Perhaps sometimes we just concentrate only on one feature or area of our Christian life but not the whole and our beauty in Christ becomes skewed. Being beautiful in Christ involves more than just the outside or just one part of us. Our verse says, ‘…a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.’ That is beauty that transcends time and doesn’t fade away. One thing about beauty that we all know as women is that it is a daily thing. In other words we have to keep ourselves up. If we let ourselves go what happens? We’re not quite so beautiful anymore are we? It is the same with being beautiful in Christ. We have to constantly work at it. Here are some things to help us improve our beauty in Christ. 1) Cleanser. In order to make ourselves beautiful, we have to first cleanse ourselves of all unwanted impurities. Our cleansing agent works through our confession and God’s forgiveness. ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ 1 John 1:9″ I hope you think of that the next time you are washing your face. God cleanses us when we come to him with all that we have done wrong and failed to do. But He forgives us! What a beautiful thing. Even the worst possible human sins are wiped clean away. Only something very powerful and loving could do that for us! What good news to share with those who are feeling bad about something they’ve done. And what great advice to those of us who have people we need to forgive. I’ll leave you today with one of my favorite quotes-
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Be the bigger person today and let it go. Whatever it is. Happy Saturday!
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