"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7
God doesn't see in the same way that we do. He isn't caught up in our societal addiction to external beauty. He loves us because of who we are, not what we look like. I like that confidence that God will never discriminate against us because we aren't beautiful enough... that he isn't upset or uncomfortable around us because of the zit, or the nose, or the weight, or whatever else it is.
In life we all have to set priorities for ourselves. We have to value this above that, in order to decide how to spend our time. And we take shortcuts sometimes to make things quicker. We judge people by external appearance, or first impressions... but God never does. He knows us all the way through, and he loves us anyway. :) Weird, I know. But infinitely cool. And maybe this verse is helping us to realize that we need to stop using convenient shortcuts... or just that we need to change our priorities. With ourselves, and with others, maybe we need to back off a little bit from our obsessive focus on the physical, and focus instead on the spiritual... the mental, the emotional. Get to know people on the inside. Stop hating our bodies and start beautifying our hearts. :) ... Today, let's see past the external to who the people really are around us. Let's move past the external as individuals and show and exercise the depth of our characters. :) Let's clean out the cobwebs in our internal space, and start focusing on what is most important to God.
1 Samuel 16:7
God doesn't see in the same way that we do. He isn't caught up in our societal addiction to external beauty. He loves us because of who we are, not what we look like. I like that confidence that God will never discriminate against us because we aren't beautiful enough... that he isn't upset or uncomfortable around us because of the zit, or the nose, or the weight, or whatever else it is.
In life we all have to set priorities for ourselves. We have to value this above that, in order to decide how to spend our time. And we take shortcuts sometimes to make things quicker. We judge people by external appearance, or first impressions... but God never does. He knows us all the way through, and he loves us anyway. :) Weird, I know. But infinitely cool. And maybe this verse is helping us to realize that we need to stop using convenient shortcuts... or just that we need to change our priorities. With ourselves, and with others, maybe we need to back off a little bit from our obsessive focus on the physical, and focus instead on the spiritual... the mental, the emotional. Get to know people on the inside. Stop hating our bodies and start beautifying our hearts. :) ... Today, let's see past the external to who the people really are around us. Let's move past the external as individuals and show and exercise the depth of our characters. :) Let's clean out the cobwebs in our internal space, and start focusing on what is most important to God.
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