“I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.” (Psalms 139:14 AMPC)
In 1961 there was an Andy Griffith episode where he had been made judge of a beauty pageant for Miss Mayberry. It created a controversy in town with everyone, each trying to manipulate Andy in picking their individual candidate. On the day of the pageant Andy was in a dilemma. Everyone was looking at him with anticipation for the announcement of the winner hoping their candidate would be the winner. Before he announced the winner, Andy made a speech about what beauty really was. He said; “there’s outside beauty and then there’s inside beauty.” The message he was trying to convey to them was it was more than their candidates being pretty on the outside. He ended up choosing the elderly lady that had been working in the background sewing costumes and helping put the pageant together.
It is the same way when God looks at us. He doesn’t look at our outside features. He looks to see what we have going on inside. We are fearfully and wonderfully made in His image as a spirit with an inner beauty. When we look in the mirror our reflection we see should be that of Christ. (“And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit” 2 Corinthians 3:18 AMPC.) If we are made in the image of the Father and we know of His Beauty as we behold Him in the beauty of His Holiness. We come into His presence adorned with His anointing for pure worship. (“O worship the Lord in the adornment of holiness! Stand in awe before Him, all the earth” Psalms 96:9 ONM) When Samuel was sent to Jessie’s house to anoint the next king, he was looking at all of Jessie’s sons by their “outside beauty.” God had in mind the son that Samuel never considered. He let Samuel know that man looks on the outer appearance but He looks on the heart (inside beauty). (“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV).
Some people can be dressed to the nines on the outside but on their inside they can be nasty and hateful. Sometimes there is no sign of the love of Jesus emanating from them. (“In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” Matthew 23:28). When we encounter other people, they should see the fruit of our beauty which is the Spirit. (“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” Galatians 5:22-23).
Let’s show that inside beauty of our renewed spirit. Let the light of Jesus Christ shine out from us so that we can attract others to Him. (“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” 1 Peter 3:3-4).
Change always happens from inside out, never outside in. Let’s show our “inside” beauty!
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