Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Graeme Wilson in Victory Call

We’ve all heard the stories – 12 year old girls plastering their face with makeup to feel pretty, 16 year old girls with hair in front of their face so nobody looks at them, girls in their 20s dressing inappropriately because they desperately want to feel noticed. It’s really sad, and a huge problem – especially in today’s society.

…It doesn’t stop at young girls though. How many times do we tell someone not to take a picture of us – or to take the picture from far away – because we don’t like how we look? Do we ever get extremely concerned because we ran out of makeup and need to get to work in the morning?  I’m sure most of us struggle with worries about appearance.

I read a couple of articles and devotionals about this very topic. One says:
“In Satan’s arsenal, one of his biggest weapons is doubt. Satan loves for us to question who we are and how we measure up to others (Ephesians 2:1-2; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Samuel 16:7).”

Another article had a lot of insight on the topic:
“Christ said, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’ (Mark 8:34). The word deny here literally translates, ‘to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests.’ We are meant to let all thoughts of self become swallowed up in Him.

The secret to becoming the radiant, beautiful princess of our childhood dreams is forgetting all about our self and becoming completely consumed with only one thing – Jesus Christ. Just as John the Baptist who declared, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

This isn’t just the secret to living out the true Gospel; it’s also the secret to glowing with divine loveliness. It’s the cure for female insecurity.”

Scripture tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We need to believe that, not only for ourselves, but also because the younger generation is always watching. We need to teach young people to be confident in the person God created them to be. We don’t want them to be vain or have a lack of humility, we want them to “face the future with confidence” (that’s our Summer 2016 theme!) We can’t say that but not believe it!

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” – Psalm 139: 13-16

It is the LORD who created us … and the Lord makes treasures. He does not make mistakes, He does not make junk. He created the entire earth and saw that it was good, and when He created humans – He saw that it was very good. If the LORD says that… we’ve got to believe it and we’ve got to live like it!

Erin

Erin Culleny serves as a Marketing Assistant and Staff Writer. She had served on Summer Staff since 2011, and this past summer had the unique opportunity of co-directing Children’s Ministry with one of her best friends. She is very excited to continue to build relationships with the guests and be very involved in the ministry.