[MARCH 19] Authentic Beauty

Read: Proverbs 31:21-31

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised."
--Proverbs 31:30

I often take a moment as I wait at our grocery store checkout stand to scan the covers of the magazines displayed there. It seems that if they aren't about sex and money, they're about diet, fitness, health, and outward beauty. There's nothing there for the soul.

The problem is that people read the wrong magazines--those that are full of lies that fixate on beauty of fact and form as though that's all there is. This can lead to comparison terrible despair.

Some years ago, a friend of mine told of a conversation he had with lovely, self-assured teenager. "You're very self-confident," he observed. "Can you tell me why?" "Yes," the young woman answered. "It's because I'm so pretty." "Oh, I'm sorry," he said with extraordinary wisdom. "Why?" she asked in surprise. "Because," he replied, "you may always be pretty."

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing" is the wisdom we read in Proverbs 31. Physical beauty all too quickly fades away; all ones efforts to keep it are doomed to fail. But there is an inner beauty--authentic beauty that will endure forever--in the one "who fears the Lord" (v.30). --David Roper

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me--
All His wonderful passion and purity!
O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine.
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. --Orsborn

REFLECT ON THIS:

Righteousness in the heart produces beauty in the character.

[FEBRUARY 24] Being Real

Read: 2 Corinthians 6:3-11

"In all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses" 

--2 Corinthians 6:4

An antique dealer thought the wrinkled old baseball card she found might be worth $10. After posting it on eBay, she began to wonder if it might be more valuable than she had thought. She removed the posting and consulted a professional evaluator who confirmed that the photo on the 1869 card showed the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team in the US. The card sold for more than $75,000.

Mike Osegueda’s article in The Fresno Bee said that even though the card was creased and discolored, the most important thing was its authenticity—it was real.

Paul and his companions suffered greatly while spreading the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 6, he listed their outward trials, their inward traits, and their spiritual resources (vv.4-7). Try to imagine the circumstances in which all these things interacted—beatings, patience, prison, kindness, distresses, love. Although broken physically, depleted emotionally, and tested spiritually, the authenticity of their faith in Christ clearly shone through. “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (v.10).

In our walk with Christ, there’s no substitute for spiritual authenticity—being real. --David McCasland

O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, com in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. --Chisholm

REFLECT ON THIS:
There’s no substitute for being real.