Can I really be an idol unto myself? Well, I can honestly say that there was a time in my life when I was excessively attached and devoted to my appearance above all things. But that got all cleared up when I was in a major car wreck the summer before my senior year in high school and all my friends came to see me in the hospital. I had absolutely no make-up on, and those hospital gowns were not flattering at all!!!! I quickly learned how instantly outward beauty can vanish.
The truth is that many of us have made our appearance an idol out of our own selfish choosing. Others of us have made our appearance an idol because we have succumb to the pressures of those around us, including peers and media. Still others of us have made our appearance an idol, because we were verbally wounded as a way to manipulate us to change our looks (especially when it comes to losing weight).
No matter which category you consider yourself, all are a stronghold that satan has used (and it's working really well) to detour our focus off the magnificent obsession: Jesus Christ. Satan has distracted us with ourselves, and thus from the One who deserves our "excessive attachment or devotion to".
Paul said this: "But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him."
Philippians 3:7-9
So now it bids us all the question: how do you consider yourself? A person obsessed with your looks to the point that you enter a room and look to see of there is any competition? A person so obsessed that you miss out on real relationships with others because you are so self-consumed? Or a person who wants nothing more than to know Christ? And as He works on the inside , she radiates on the outside?
"Those who look to Him are RADIANT." Psalm 34:5
My prayer is that all of us would be able to say as Paul did that all of that being consumed with our appearance is nothing to us in comparison with knowing Jesus Christ, letting Him make you beautiful.
Watch this video and listen to the song "Beautiful" by Bethany Dillon....introduced to me by my daughter, Jorja...... it says it all.
May this truth sink deep into our souls.
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