You make me beautiful!

Our pastor was teaching this morning on marriage and submission. Perhaps not an easy topic, none the less, Sam and I sat riveted in our seats.

In the message, he mentioned Sarah and Abraham. I felt a nod in my Spirit. Ahhh Sarah. Woman of Faith. I enjoyed this afternoon to go home and study Sarah a little more, to read through Genesis..

This is one of my favourite passages of scripture..

1 Peter 3

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,  when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 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. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Oh how powerful, what an incredible message about beauty.

I know some older woman might find it hilarious for me to say so, but here at 35, I face fresh awareness of how quickly exterior beauty fades. All the supposed 'charm' that might have been mine to use, quickly fades. What Im left with, is knowing what it really means, to possess an internal beauty. And how powerful it is to live in that knowing.

Also how dangerous it is to live outside of that.

Outside of that, is a chasing after the wind. An emptiness. An insecurity, a weakness that breeds death and discontentment. The world offers many ways to put the breaks on aging.. but all its values are built around a message "you are not beautiful with the evidence of years upon your life". We shouldnt be structuring ANY of our values around the worlds ideals.

God clearly says that our beauty is the "inner self". In the NKJV its aptly referred to as the "hidden person".

What kind of person is a hidden person? Well, she is submissive, she is fearless, she is quiet and gentle in spirit. She is sure of her value in Jesus Christ. She is holy and reverent. She is obedient and respectful.

Isnt it hard sometimes, to cultivate the inner hidden person?

 
Sarah is also a real woman. Read Genesis 17 to 21 and you can clearly see the times that Sarah displayed behaviour that didnt reflect the kind of beauty 1 Peter referred to. Sarah's life was less than ideal. Its easy to imagine that Abraham might have been this amazing faith filled husband who was noble and leading, spiritual and strong.

He wasnt always! What about in Genesis 20 when he leads Sarah off to Egypt, and tells her to lie and say that she is his sister so that his own life is preserved. Cowardly! Sarah gets taken in to the Palace, she's beautiful and fair game.. and its *Gods Grace* that the King doesnt take Sarah into his bed. God speaks to King Abimelech in a dream and she is preserved.

Is that not there, an incredibally defining moment of Sarah's beauty? Im in awe of her. She is submissive to her husband. Was she scared? Would you have been? I cant help but wonder if Sarah thought this was divine justice for her foolishness at getting Abraham to sleep with Hagar. Maybe she was tempted to be direspectful to Abraham, undermine him, be loud and moaning and irreverant. Or just maybe, Sarah had come to realise many times over, how actions borne out of fear, led to consequences that hurt far too deep.. and that trust in Jesus Christ, mattered more than anything. The hidden person.

You are not wrong that the hidden person will cost you a lot!

For me, Facebook has become an area where God has been growing my understanding of the 'hidden person'. Facebook can so easily become a platform for areas of inappropriateness. It so easily can become a time waster, a place to boast, draw attention to ourselves, to paint a picture of an unreal me. It can be a place of great temptation. Dont get me wrong, I see the benefits of facebook too!! But for me, its been one area where God has been challenging me "does this cultivate the hidden person?"

The answer for me has been to significantly reduce my time on Facebook to a mere half an hour a week, with Sam, one evening.

There are many other areas also, where life throws at us the opportunity to either grow, or squander, the hidden person. Pinterest.. Twitter.. Instagram... thats just a few! Like Sarah, we are faced with so many fears and values that the world throws at us, and its easy to start measuring our success through our own means, to grade our ideals t, to be fed messages which heap upon the disappointments in our soul. 

We can only be free from those things, when we, like Sarah, are willing to place our full trust and dependancy on the Lord. When like Sarah, we can cultivate a reverence and holiness in our conduct and countenance, that comes from where? Being hidden in Him.

Thats where beauty starts.

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