"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well" (Psalm 139:13–14).
"But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart'" (1 Samuel 16:7).
"The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord" (Psalm 45:11).
Suddenly I knew I had been lied to.
For years I struggled to accept my own beauty and value. I believed lies like "you have to be perfect in order to be loved," "everyone else is thinner and more beautiful than you are," "your value is tied to your weight," and "there's no such thing as too thin." It wasn't long before I started to dwell on those lies. Then I started to act. Before I knew it I was in bondage. And I didn't even know I had been lied to.
But that changed when I got serious about turning to God's Word for truth. When I read passages like the ones above and chose to accept them as truth, those lies suddenly lost their hold on my heart. God's Word became a spotlight pointing to areas that I'd been deceived.
This is the mystery spelled out by Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
God's Word is the sword we must use to defend ourselves against the lies told by the world and by the evil one. It is also the shovel we must use to uproot lies once they have taken root in our hearts. We cannot live lives committed to God's truth without loving and reading God's Word.
Many of you have told me that you also struggle in the areas of beauty and worth. My advice? Dig into God's Word. Others of you struggle with boy craziness or the need to have affirmation from a boy. Dig into God's Word. Some of you are wrestling with the consequences of past sins. Dig into God's Word. Some of you don't know where you've been deceived, but your lives are a mess and you sense that something isn't right. Dig into God's Word.
The Bible is so much more than a book. It is living and active. It is a sword that has the power to slice lies right out of our lives. Have you picked up your sword today?