With bathing suit season in full swing, feelings of insecurity about our bodies can dampen the high spirits of summer fun. Today we offer a glimpse into our newest devotional for teenagers, published by P&R Publishing and written by Andrea Lee: Body Image: Valuing God’s Good Gift.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the [person] who takes refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8)
There was time when I thought that if I were thin, life would be good. I exercised hard, paid attention to food labels, followed fitness accounts, counted calories, weighed myself often, and studied how influencers looked. Waves of panic engulfed me every time I didn’t measure up. I was trying to create a good life by pursuing a “beautiful” body.
My definition of good was too narrow. God designed our bodies to experience his goodness and to extend his goodness to others. We need to know that God created us as embodied souls –a unity of body and spirit. The physical expresses the invisible. When we cry, our tears show that something is going on in our hearts. When we speak, our mouths express a thought or desire from our inner person.
Our verse today encourages us to use our physical senses to appreciate God’s goodness to us. This is one reason that food tastes good –so we can understand how satisfying God is. When we taste and see God’s goodness, it makes sense for us to turn to him for the comfort and peace that comes when we depend on him and listen to him. When we take refuge in God this way, we can stop seeking refuge in a beautiful body, thinking that physical changes will bring lasting good into our lives. Our bodies can’t bring us peace, but God can.
A woman named Evelyn Brand shows how beautiful we are when we experience God’s goodness and share it with others. Evelyn was born into a wealthy English family in 1879. After she came to faith in Christ, she spent most of her life as a missionary in India, serving in a mountainous region that was infamous for its sickness and poverty. For the last twenty years of her life, she removed all mirrors from her home. She didn’t want her appearance to distract her from experiencing and giving God’s goodness.
Although Evelyn’s body weakened and wrinkled as she aged, she rejoiced that she could bring medicine, food, and hope to people in need. When she dies at age ninety-five, her son said, “With wrinkles as deep and extensive as any I have ever seen on a human face, she was a beautiful woman.” She appreciated the body God gave her, and she used it to extend God’s goodness to others.
When we nourish our inner person with God’s Word, the Holy Spirit changes the way we think about and use our bodies. His grace enables us to stop fixating on our own and others’ appearances and to start making friends instead. He helps us relish God’s gifts to us and his purposes for us instead of getting upset over our weight, our skin, or our hair. He empowers us to stop obsessing about what others think about us and to start looking for ways to encourage them instead.
Pray: God, thank you for giving me a body that can experience your goodness. Help me take refuge in you by looking to your Word for the wisdom I need to appreciate and use my body for your purposes.
Act: Seek out a godly older woman who models the qualities in Titus 2:3-5 and ask her what she treasures most about God right now. How does she see God’s goodness to her?
This excerpt, published with permission from P&R Publishing, comes from ”Experiencing God’s Goodness,” day five of Body Image: Valuing God’s Good Gift by Andrea Lee.
