Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5 NIV  

Those Who Look to Him are Radiant – Psalm 34:5

Dear Sister in Christ … 

Imagine with me, for just a few minutes, entering the throne room of God. He smiles and speaks your name as He motions for you to come closer. What thoughts are going through your mind as you draw near to Him?

Do you hold His steady gaze or have you already lowered your eyes? Do you run to Him with childlike abandon and climb up into His lap? Or do you drag your feet, searching the room for somewhere to hide?

If you felt uncomfortable in His presence, have you ever paused to ask yourself why that is? Can you think of a woman in the Bible who felt she needed to run and hide from God, too? Yes, her name was Eve.

The very first time she opened her eyes on this earth, Eve found herself enjoying intimate fellowship with God. This vulnerable intimacy was His original design for us and it was all Eve knew prior to the fall. Then the enemy entered the scene and everything changed.

Satan’s strategy was to immediately attack God’s Word and sow doubt in Eve’s mind about God’s goodness (Gen 3:1). Prior to this moment. Eve never lacked for anything. Yet, Satan convinced her that God was withholding something good from her so she took a bite of the forbidden fruit …

But did it bring the good she was grasping for? No. It filled her with shame and confusion. Innocence was lost so she and Adam hid from God. In Gen 3:11, God asked them this question: “Who told you that you were naked?”

The LORD knew every detail of Eve’s encounter with the serpent and He was there when the enemy slithered into our lives as well, filling us with lies and shaming us into believing we needed to run and hide from God.

Imagine God asking you this today:
“Who told you that you were anything less than who I created you to be?”

What would your answer be?

For me, I struggled with an eating disorder set in motion in my teens when I was fat shamed and reminded often what a disappointment I was. Beauty was an elusive goal … I could never starve myself enough or work my body hard enough to get to where enough was enough.

The broken way in which I was beheld in my teen years became the filter through which I beheld myself. I received all condemnation as confirmation for the deeply embedded lies I already falsely believed about myself.

So when I received God’s Holy Spirit, He invited me to step into His light and everything in me wanted to run for cover. But our Creator’s heartfelt desire has always been to return us to the sweet place of intimate oneness with Him that Eve enjoyed before the fall.

Do you know where this intimacy can be found?

We find this intimacy with God in His beautiful light. Psalm 104:2 tells us that God is dressed in a robe of light. He wraps Himself in light as with a garment. And 1 Thess 5:5 tells us that we are Children of Light and we do not belong to the night or to the darkness (NIV).

When you imagined stepping into God’s throne room, you were being welcomed into His warm, healing, and redemptive light where you belong. If you felt uncomfortable being vulnerable with God, the enemy has been working on you, my friend, just as he did me. The enemy spins his deception in an attempt to sow doubt into our minds about God’s goodness.

To be fair to Eve about that infamous apple, can we think of times we were convinced we needed to take matters into our own hands because we falsely believed God was cruelly withholding something from us?

You know those times when we were convinced someone else was smarter, capable or more blessed than we are? How about other times when we felt so alone, believing we were forgotten and undeserving of love? And what about those prayers that got answered in her life but not yet in ours?

As the ransomed Daughters of the Most High God, we know this truth: He who gave up His own Son for all of us will also graciously give us all things. (Rom 8:32)

Our God is a good Father who gives us good gifts: “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow” James 1:17 NLT.

In His steadfast light, we discover our true worth and beauty are found in our reflection of Him. Eph 2:10 tells us we are God’s masterpiece. His light is our safe place to abide, dance, live, move, breathe and learn from our mistakes as we grow up in Christ. Why?

Because the enemy will NEVER follow us into God’s light where his lies and strongholds will be exposed and dismantled. So he calls to us from the shadows, hoping his lies will still trigger a familiar feeling of shame and send us running back to him for some false sense of security.

It will take humility on our part to submit to God and resist the enemy so he flees from us (James 4:7) …

In fact, sweet humility will offer us the rest and peace needed to thrive as children of light. But humility will take courage at first when the enemy has spent years filling us with lies about a punishing God. 1 John 4:18 reminds us There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (ESV).

Humility will help us remove our mask and change our narrative to begin honoring ourselves the way God does when we’ve been conditioned to see ourselves as His greatest mistake. Humility helps us to cooperate as His healing light begins to draw out all the poisons the enemy has infected us with.

Humility will help us to forgive the one(s) who beheld us in a broken way to begin with, breaking Satan’s power to keep us trapped in shame because of their choices. Humility will help us relax in God’s love rather than hustling for our worth or striving for the inhumane illusion of perfection. 

Psalm 34:5 tells us those who look to God are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Never means never here, there are NO shifting shadows with God. Period! It’s time to step into His loving light, the NLT version tells us when we look to God for help, we will be radiant with joy.

I can’t think of a better beauty regimen than abiding with God in His light.

Like sun catchers dancing in the window, shimmering in the warm glow of the sun. We have been unmasked, beautifully and transparently absorbing and reflecting the pure, radiant healing light of the SON!

My friend, is someone in your life willing to continue the devil’s work of rejecting, invalidating or punishing you in any way because you’ve brought your entire life into God’s light? We have permission to abandon all evil in the shifting shadows and move forward with Christ in His peace and joy …

Don’t let Satan engage you in any more conversations that speak contrary to God’s Truth. In humility, let’s continue to yield to God’s Word (Jesus) so we can effectively wield His Word (the Sword of the Spirit) when the serpent comes slithering around with his rediculous accusations, just like he did with Eve: “Did God really say that???” (Gen 3:1)

Why yes, He did!

You, my Sister, are free to thrive in the fullness of Your Heavenly Father’s JOY as you live, move and breathe in His sweet light. Climb up into His lap and lay your head on His chest to listen to His heart beat for you.

Then slow your anxious heart way down until it beats in rhythm with His …

This is where you belong, my beautiful Sister in Christ!

Live Loved Today,

Those Who Look to Him are Radiant – Psalm 34:5 @ freshgracefortoday.com

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