Reading for Wednesday, January 9th ~ Philippians 3

Today’s beauty and fashion industries are promoting a truly impossible standard for feminine beauty. Just today I read about a set of twin teenage models that were both in the ICU suffering from a severe case of anorexia because the modeling agency ordered them to loose more weight so that their cheekbones would show.

Unfortunately, in order to combat the problem of insecurity among women who fail to look like the models in the magazines, society is racing to the other extreme; teaching our young girls to “love themselves” regardless of what society might think.  The idea being that if women can learn to “feel good about themselves” regardless of their appearance or personal failures, they won’t wallow in self-condemnation.

But learning how to love, or feel good about ourselves is not the solution to overcoming insecurity. I know it’s important for us to understand how precious we are in God’s sight – He so loved us that He gave His only Son to rescue us. But when we make “feeling good about ourselves” a focal point, we immediately take our eyes off Christ and we become our focus. And our world suddenly revolves around us!

I believe Paul got it right in Philippians 3. Our confidence shouldn’t lie in ourselves - but in Christ only (Philippians 3:3). In fact, Paul goes on to say that he counts all that he was and all his accomplishments “as rubbish” compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8).

Jesus does not mince words on this point either when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23) and “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:37). Remember that to “deny ourselves” according to the biblical pattern literally means to lose sight of ourselves and our own interests.

It may seem hard to believe that self-denial, rather than self-esteem, can actually be the solution to our insecurities. But when we let ‘self’ take a backseat and allow Jesus Christ to take over, our personal insecurities will melt away.

I know because I came to Christ as a very insecure young wife and mom, who had come from a long line of insecure people. I was painfully shy, but the more I grew to understand the Scriptures, the better I could to see this shyness, I sheepishly thought of as humility, was actually a form of bondage that Christ and His truth could free me from.

 It didn’t happen over night; it’s been evolving over years. It’s scary and freeing all at the same time, but the more steps of faith taken... the more freedom I've felt, and the greater the desire to be all Christ Jesus has called me out to be!

Ian Thomas wrote, “The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus Christ, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you – your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything – then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it.”

That’s quite a statement, don’t you think? I also liked what Charles Spurgeon said, “If a soul has any beauty, it is because Christ has endowed that soul with His own, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled! There is no beauty in any of us but what our Lord has worked in us."
 
Don’t you just love that? It’s not about us, but about Christ in us. There is freedom in that truth!

John the Baptist got it right when he declared, “I must decrease, but He must increase" (Jn. 3:30). The beauty of Jesus Christ will only come shining through our lives when ‘self’ gets out of the way.