Today’s principle focus is on creating a successful image, looking and feeling sharp!
Today’s Positive Affirmation and Encouraging Words to Live By:
“I am a great example of Christ in action and I am able to minister positively to others through the way that I present myself.”
Scripture Reference: Proverbs 31:22
Think on this: While the proverb states “She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.” It could just as easily read: “From our homes to our attire, the wise man and woman of God have got it going on!”
“Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know that you are there until he has finished eating and drinking…” In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a young woman lying at his feet.“The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.” – Ruth 3:3
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. – 2 Tim 2:15
ON A SCALE OF 1-10… (10 being the highest most confident in the area of appearance.) How stylish/put together do you feel?
It is easy to see the value in getting dressed up, we dress our best for Sunday church, special occasions, and even for work.
Today we are going to cover a topic most sermons don’t cover, the importance of our day-to-day dress and appearance. Have you considered dressing your best, all the time? It wasn’t until I read Proverbs 31:22, that I saw that a wise person not only takes care of the inner man but of their outer selves as well.
Did you know that God wants you to be rich? Rich in love, rich in relationships, and rich in joy. It is His desire for you to be fully blessed. The Jewish have a word for it, ‘Shalom’.
Shalom means, nothing missing and nothing broken. You may hear as a standard Jewish greeting, “Shalom unto you, Shalom.” Their greeting is set up as if to say, “God’s blessings be unto you.” We will cover Shalom in detail, a little later.
I know quite a few single men and women who always look stunning! Their hair is shinny, clean, and their clothes are pressed. I did too, until I started having children and stopped trying to keep myself up. Being clean and dressed nice was superseded by whatever worked at the time.
Today’s focus is on remembering to be set on becoming stylish in the morning. Not only to look nice for your family, but to be available to serve the Lord. If the Lord called you to minister right now, are you dressed for it? Or do you serve only after you feel you are ready for it?
RUTH
One of our scripture references for today is a scripture out of the book of Ruth. Ruth was an astounding woman and in doing her family right, she became blessed and honored. When you read the scripture, did you notice that the key to unlocking Ruth’s blessing from Boaz was for Ruth to wash and perfume herself and put on her best clothes?
When we present ourselves to others, we are stating our belief in ourselves. What does all this have to do with Shalom? Until you can fully grasp that God desires prosperity in your life, you will not be able to understand God’s kind of prosperity or why it is important to present our best to others.
Some people choose to think that because they don’t have much money, they simply can’t appear pleasant. It is like those without funds are being limited 24-7. You can’t look nice, you don’t want to let anyone see our car, without money it can feel as if you are stuck not adding any value to the lives of others at all. You may even get fooled into believing that you can’t pray for someone, and unfortunately sometimes you can even begin to think that you can’t enter into the Kingdom.
Most Christians feel morally at odds with getting or being rich. They feel as if God would be displeased with them and if they weren’t found in a constant struggle they wouldn’t be found worthy, and that just isn’t so! If this were true, Ruth would have been told to just go home! “You don’t need a husband, or a family, as a matter of fact God told me He wants you to show Him how much you love Him by living an ordinary and dull existence, the rest of your life!” But instead, Ruth is so honored in her triumphant story that her life is written down in the everlasting book of the Bible, alongside with the Apostles and the Psalms written by some of the greatest men in history.
As a matter of fact, there is a central theme of “prosperity and triumph” woven throughout the entire Bible.
The Bible’s very premise and purpose is one of encouragement and joy. The telling of Ruth and the care she showed to her mother-in-law, is just one of these historical encouraging events. The Bible does not share with us every event in history, but it does show us the history of redemption. Each act in the book is a stage of cause and effect, all with the same conclusion redemption.
God’s definition of prosperity is different than ours.
God’s definition of prosperity is very different than ours. In our physical world, we are conditioned to see things in one dimension. Ever since you were a child you were taught to think in terms of only what you can see. Such as, “Burr, I’m cold,” or “Urgh, I’m hungry.” God is not looking at us to see how we feel He is looking to us to live by faith, despite how we feel.
A well-known preacher has said, “Prosperity with God is not determined by what you have but by what has YOU.”
The very basis of ones ability to comfortably be found stylish and appear put together inside and out, is based on how ‘rich and prosperous’ they feel inside. Not at all based on what you have or don’t have.
If you didn’t know that you were initially created to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,” (Gen.1: 26) and that God created you to have dominion, you wouldn’t know that God wants you and desires for you to have dominion and a life full of prosperity.
If you knew that no matter what you tried you couldn’t fail, what would you do? How would you feel? Wouldn’t you feel like a million bucks?
It is my belief, that there are enough promises and scriptures found in the Bible that people don’t ever have to live in fear again. Scripture says that Christ has reversed the curse that was put on Adam and Eve, and that we as His people can once again walk with dominion over all the earth! (Galatians 3:13)
If you aren’t feeling confident and stylish at the moment and all you can afford is a cheap franchise haircut, get it anyway. I used to think that was beneath me. I used to think hairstyling had to cost hundreds of dollars or you wouldn’t be getting a good cut. In turn I wouldn’t keep up my looks. Looking like I didn’t care became much worse than having a “decent” cut. If you go someplace inexpensive, just make sure you keep it simple and don’t expect too much. A lot of great hair stylists start out in these types of places.
As far as clothes are concerned, if you can’t afford to revamp your own wardrobe, start wearing those special outfits everyday, instead of only once a week or never. For those of you that always look great but may feel horrible on the inside, begin to work on reading your Bible and changing that inner voice. Find as much as you can with in its pages on how to walk in confidence both inside and out. Another thing I have learned is to make my bed everyday.
Studies have proven people who make their beds everyday have a higher self-image than others.
Stack your books in nice and tidy stacks. Instead of putting your yucky clothes on and taking your make-up off as soon as you get home today, try your best to keep looking nice until bedtime.
Our kids know when Dad is about to come home because an hour before he is due to arrive I make sure to clean the house, do my hair and put on my make-up – when possible. Some mornings I get to it right away, some times I don’t, but at least every night before Daddy comes home, all things come together.
I know this might sound silly, but if you can afford it, go and buy some nice pajamas. One year, I took Jeff to a department store to buy brand named pajamas. They weren’t cheap by any means, but they have lasted forever. He always remarks on what a good night sleep he gets when he wears those pajamas. Nicely fitting, cotton pajamas. A good night’s rest is a great way to begin feeling good inside and out. When our house and our bodies look their best all the time, it creates within us a desire to expect greatness out of ourselves and out of others. People will begin to listen to us more when we speak, and we will begin to draw resources to us by our positive outlook on life. When we are constantly looking at where we can improve ourselves, and are focused on personal growth, we can begin being placed in a position of spiritual dominion over our circumstances. The bottom line, when we take initiative to appear our best, we are often found at our best.
Taking care and personally stylizing our lives will affect your whole family. Your children will begin to see a new you, they will see that their parents are taking care of themselves, and they will begin to think that they should too. Your spouse will begin to take notice of you, and you will start setting yourself apart from the nicely dressed but overworked coworkers in their workplace. They will eagerly want to bless you and do anything to help support you and your desire to get more ‘style’. Regardless of the outcome, by the end of the day you will know within yourself that you have changed and that now you are ready to serve!
Suggested Resources:
God Wants You to Be Rich “How and Why Everyone Can Enjoy Material and Spiritual Wealth in Our Abundant World.” By Paul Zane Pilzner
This book is a phenomenal book on economics. With so much talk about “scarcity”, Pilzner goes into great deal on how God would never let his creation out live their resources. Pilzner has masterfully crafted a book full of facts on the environment and technology, and will give you everything you will need to know to share with others Gods laws of abundance.
The Greatest Miracle in the World By Og Mandino
This is the most exciting book I have ever read! You will go back and forth between, is this really happening? And it must be real! Og Mandino has cleverly written a novel with characters that you wish could live on forever. I easily read this book once a year, and always recommend it to people as the best personal growth book ever written.
This Principle in Action:
According to the book of Esther, the women who were selected to go before the King had to undergo quite the beautification process. Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics. Esther 2:12
Queen Esther was presented to the King in her best form. She was respected and loved deeply due to the fact that she had knowledge in her heart of the scripture and her outer beauty portrayed her inner righteousness. She would read to the King at night and tell him of her homeland. As it was she single handedly through her bravery and encouragement from her uncle ended up saving the entire Nation of Israel from destruction. Her external beauty that 108 radiated from an inward confidence softened the heart of a King, and ended up saving an entire civilization of people.
Today’s Key Take Away:
• Whether rich or poor, decide today to put your best foot forward. Give yourself an extra 10 to 15 minutes to put forth the energy to care. Learn to love the way you look and present yourself to others with an inwardly and outwardly positive presentation. You are a beautiful and miraculous creation, created by God for a specific reason, let your light shine from your heart and know that God desires the absolute best for His children.
Today’s Reflection: What did I learn about myself? When you dress your best, do you notice a difference inside yourself? Do you walk taller or breath deeper? How did today turn out having been prepare to serve, did anyone take notice?
Share this post with someone you think could use a sense of wholeness in their lives… we have 10 more amazing days to go! See our last post on living fear free HERE
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