Captivating - Week 8 (Beauty To Unveil)

"Show me your face, let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet and your face is lovely."
(Song of Solomon 2:14)

Beauty.....as women, we desire it, we long for it, we yearn for it.  Beauty may be the most powerful thing on earth.  Beauty speaks.  Beauty invites.  Beauty nourishes.  Beauty comforts.  Beauty inspires.  Beauty is transcendent.  Beauty draws us to God.  The essence of a woman is beauty.  She is meant to be the incarnation of a captivating God...a God who invites us.   A woman who is unveiling her beauty is inviting us to life!  

But what are the messages that we have been told about beauty that have distorted our image of it?  This was the topic of discussion this week in our Captivating Bible Study.  As the facilitator of the group, I wanted so desperately to be the one who could respond with the undeniable "yes", when it came around to my turn to answer the question of the night:  "Do you think you are beautiful".  Although I believe that God is beautiful and that His creation bears His image, I still struggle with accepting what God says about me...that I AM BEAUTIFUL and that I have something to offer to this world.  And it grieves my heart.  Because I know that it grieves God's heart.  If I was made in the very image of God but cannot accept myself as beautiful, then am I not telling God that I, whom He created, am not good enough?

Why do I get stuck here?  I am tired of going around this same mountain.  I have believed the lies of the enemy that others told me that:

• I am undesireable; 
• I am not worth keeping; 
• I am not pretty;
• I do not matter
• I have nothing to offer; 
• I am not good enough. 

How many times will I lay this hurt and pain at His feet, only to pick it up again and again?  My heart is still in need of Jesus' healing. One woman on the DVD shared this quote which I've been reflecting on over the last couple of days:

"I know God loves me, and if He can delight in me, then there's something there."

God loves me!  He delights in me.  And because of that truth, I can rest in knowing that I am beautiful.  I have His attention!  In His eyes, I am the essence of beauty!

The King is enthralled by your beauty.  (Psalm 45:11a)

Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me." (Song of Solomon 2:13b)

Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Your eyes are doves behind your veil.  (Song of Solomon 4:1a)

You are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way. (Song of Solomon 4:7)

Do you have trouble seeing yourself through God's eyes?  Look up!  The more we gaze on the beauty of the Lord, the more we will be able to see ourselves in the light His beauty.  Take some time this week to ask the Lord to show you the truth of what He says about you.  Allow Him to unveil your beauty!