Our society is preoccupied with beauty. We have contests to determine who is most beautiful. Businesses spend thousands of dollars promoting their product with beautiful people. Millions are spent annually on cosmetics, fashions, and surgery to become more attractive. However, that kind of beauty is only “skin-deep.” True beauty cannot be purchased, worn, or applied.
Helen Keller said, “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they must be felt in the heart.” “Pretty is as pretty does.” Inner beauty is the aroma produced by Christ in us. It is a fragrance that attracts, delights, and exhibits great character.
II Corinthians 2:15
“For we are a sweet fragrance of Christ unto God.”
Practical Application and Assignments:
Like flowers that fill a room with fragrance, inner beauty displays the aromatic scents of the qualities of Christ.
- Read the book of Esther. It is the story of a beauty queen whose real beauty was much deeper than the outward physical attraction that qualified her to go before the king.
- Study the character of this young woman whose quiet, submissive, unselfish, obedient spirit caused a king to choose her for his queen.
- Observe her conduct of bravery and courage in the face of danger that resulted in saving her entire nation. The story of Esther is more than a fictional “lives happily ever after fairy-tale.” Her life was beautiful because she truly understood and fulfilled her eternal purpose.
- Re-examine your concept of beauty. “Charm is deceptive. Beauty is vain, but a woman who reverently fears and worships the Lord shall be praised.” Proverbs 31:30 How much time do you spend in front of a mirror? To which do you give the most time, inner or outward beauty?
“Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.” I Peter 3:4 (MSG)
