I glanced quickly at what I’d put on to go to my doctor’s appointment, and then a picture of my mother popped up on my phone. She was on her way to the doctor as well. This was serendipitous, and I saw it as an opportunity to learn a lesson. My mom hasn’t had an easy life, but you’d never know it by looking at her. Over 70, she’s still the most elegant and foxy lady I’ve ever known. I glanced again at what I quickly threw on that morning and said to myself, “I gotta represent God’s Kingdom better than this.” We’re busier than ever, and we all have days when we put ourselves on the backburner. Other things take precedent, and sometimes we forget about ourselves. As single women, we may need to rethink this, because we might be sending the wrong message.
Some of us put ourselves last because deep down, this is what we feel we deserve. We’ve done it for so long that it’s a habit; we don’t even realize we’re doing it. We must remember that God has commanded us to have the mind of Christ, and this includes thinking about ourselves in the same way that Christ does. John 3:16(NIV) says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God demonstrated His overwhelming and unconditional love for us all by sending His Son to save us and give us the gift of eternal life. We are incredibly valuable to God, and therefore, we must be valuable to ourselves.
There are many women that focus all their attention on the way they dress and look. They are consumed with designer clothes and shoes and spend more time shopping than they do on seeking God. This isn’t what God wants. He wants us to walk with the confidence of knowing we mean so much to Him. This confidence in His love is an inner reality that should be displayed outwardly. In other words, we should look and carry ourselves as though we understand that we’re the Lord’s treasure.
In a nutshell, paying attention to the details of how we’re presenting ourselves means that we care about ourselves. And because we care about ourselves as best we can, others will have confidence that we will care about them with this same diligence and attentiveness. If you’re not doing it for yourself, why would someone assume you’ll do it for them. So, yes, it matters how we display the faith and grace of God, even down to the details of what we wear and how we wear it. It matters that we send the message that nothing can compare to the power of God, and through His Holy Spirit, we’re filled with His power.
Every born-again believer represents Christ in the earth, and the brilliance and wonder of all that God has made us in Christ should exude from our pores continually. We should be ignited in the energy of his power, and folks ought to be able to see this about us. They should sense it through our faith, but many of us are feeling disappointed rather than resilient and strong. We’re not representing that we’re excited about God’s awesome power and His willingness to use it for our well-being. Instead, we’re sad because we have convinced ourselves that He has put us last.
In Deuteronomy 28:13(NLT), God told His people living in Old Testament times, “If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.” This was God’s promise to those who remained obedient to His Word. God is the One who makes us the head and not the tail. He’s the One who puts us on top, and this should fuel us with confidence and gratitude. Those living back in Old Testament times were servants, but believers living after the Pentecost are God’s children because we have His seed abiding within us. We are set apart for His purpose. We are His very own, and the thing that makes us so different is that we believe in His resurrection power, and we walk and live by His Holy Spirit!
What God has done for us through Jesus Christ is something to celebrate every moment of every day. This joy of the Lord should permeate everything we set our hand to do. It should enter the room before our bodies do. 1John 2:15 tells us, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.” By the truth of this verse, we must be clear that being self-centered or obsessed with fashion and all the other worldly things isn’t pleasing to God, but our faith in Him very definitely pleases Him. He wants us to look as though we understand who He has made us in Christ. Our appearance should reflect this, so that our love and gratitude towards God is evident in how we present ourselves to others.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Looking Confident”, written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!