In our society, almost everything is fixed on self image. How to lose weight, how to become more intelligent, how to make yourself look a certain way to get a man. Even as Christians, how many of us try to make ourselves look our best on Sunday?
Why do we do that?
Is it to wear our best for God or is that what we just tell ourselves? Unfortunately for us, God doesn’t care much about what we look like on the outside. Not to sound cliche, but it is what is on the inside that counts.
You may have noticed that life can actually get more difficult when we focus on fixing ourselves instead of fixing or strengthening our relationship with God. Our self image should be a reflection of God, not just us in the cutest outfit possible.
Self Image May Not Equal Self Worth
Focusing on fixing your self image more than your relationship with God can be dangerous. This causes us to focus on ourselves (imperfect and sinful humans) instead of the perfection of goodness that we find through Jesus. It is a slippery slope. One that can actually lead to not loving others and also not loving yourself.
Wait…self care is supposed to make me love the temple God gave me. Yes, we do need to practice self care and to treat our body like a temple. However, we see in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 that there is a little bit more to it than that.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Our bodies need to be a temple to the Holy Spirit, not to ourselves or to society. The latest fashion trends and makeup won’t matter if you are not honoring God with your bodies. We need to do this through love, kindness, and actively being in relationship with God. These acts will make you want to take care of yourself and in turn, you will be beautiful.
It is okay to wear makeup and dress in cute ways, if it is being done with the right intentions. If it is done with another reason other than looking your best for God and being who he made you to be, it can be a dangerous path of pride.
Pride Destroys Your Self Image in God’s Sight
Has there ever been anything in your life that you jumped right into trying to solve? For me, the more stress I feel over fixing something, the more I want to fix it RIGHT NOW. There has been many times when I didn’t even turn to God at all for an issue. You can guess where that got me…
No matter what is going on in your life, you must keep in constant check of the feelings you experience. Pride can seep in very easily and really warp our self image. We pat ourselves on the back for being successful instead of where the credit should be going.
I want us to take a look at the story of Edom here. In Jeremiah 49: 7-22, we are told how God destroys the kingdom of Edom. Pride destroyed Edom. While God doesn’t necessarily destroy us when we experience pride, pride alone can destroy us.
We often think that we can take care of ourselves without God’s help when when our self image is boosted by pride. Even serving God and others can lead us into pride. Take inventory of your life and service for God, asking God to point out and remove any self-centeredness.
Loving Others Changes Your Self Image
Our self image can consume us when we mold it to fit society. These actions can consume and distract us. If you are helping others and focus more on what we did for them instead of the opportunity God gave you to help them, something is mixed up.
In all that we do, we need to do it with a Christlike attitude. We are going to jump to Phillipians where we are told in chapter 2: 3-7:
“Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human fom.”
Please focus on the sentence that states: “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing…”
Jesus could raise people from the dead and yet he never acted prideful. I don’t know about you but having powers like that would very easily boost my self image. However, when we make sure to always be humble it changes the reflection of our image from ours to God’s.
How Do We Humble Ourselves?
This is an easy answer but that one that takes practice and diligence. The answer is prayer. In everything we do, we must pray and rely on God to lead us instead of our own will power. This is the only way to deflate our prideful self image to one where Christlike qualities can shine through.
Keep in mind that running yourself ragged helping others is not really what God wants either. You can’t earn a Christlike attitude by the amount of good deeds that you do. Only through being humble and living in a loving relationship with Jesus Christ can you truly have those qualities shine.
Now let’s change our self image to Christ’s image.
Let’s pray,
Father God, for myself and anybody reading, help us humble ourselves. This is a risky prayer because sometimes you may allow things in our lives to humble us. These can be uncomfortable and challenging. However, if it needs to happen because we won’t make the change ourselves, please make it happen. For me this happened a few years ago. It was one of the most difficult roads I had to walk. However, now I am more confident in my relationship and dependence on Christ than I ever have been before. I thank you for that experience. For others that have experienced this or may in the future, always be carrying them and help them learn a Christlike attitude through it.
Amen
