HEAVENSREEF

YOU CAN BUY LOVELY, BUT INSIDE YOU CANNOT BE EVEN A SMALL AMOUNT OF LOVELY WITHOUT JESUS!

We buy, we hoard and we try so very hard to fix up ourselves on the outside.  Men and women both are concerned about their looks.  Much is spent each year on products to help and we are good at all of this.  If one product doesn’t work, we move on to the next.  But in the end we are fighting the inevitable…….aging is happening and we all are getting older…….together.

We work so hard to try to look and act lovely often hiding what is truly on the inside……..are we lovely there?

Scripture tells us to do this daily…….

PHILIPPIANS 4:8 “FINALLY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHATEVER IS TRUE, WHATEVER IS HONORABLE, WHATEVER IS JUST, WHATEVER IS PURE, WHATEVER IS LOVELY, WHATEVER IS COMMENDABLE – IF THERE IS ANY MORAL EXCELLENCE AND IF THERE IS ANYTHING PRAISEWORTHY – DWELL ON THESE THINGS.”

I am struck by the fact that in the middle of the above scripture it says: whatever is lovely.  And then we are told to dwell there!

Have you ever known someone who just radiates lovely?  Maybe they aren’t a beautiful model, but it’s the inside, their character and personality just beams lovely.  Why is that?

Could it be that they are daily in the presence of the LORD?  Because we know when we spend time with HIM, that HE transforms us.  This transforming happens little by little and it continues for a lifetime.  We die a little every day, but on the inside we are being renewed daily with the Savior’s hand upon us, guiding us and filling us with HIS lovely Spirit and wisdom.

Pay attention to a person who appears lovely, because their words will be lovely too…….they will know how to build others up.  Their speech is encouraging to everyone who crosses their path.  They share their faith to all who will listen because they know their JESUS is so beautiful and lovely and worth their time, devotion and commitment.  Their faith is lovely to watch in action.

And when we are captured by HIS loveliness what does GOD say about us?

ROMANS 10:15 “AS IT IS WRITTEN: HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS.”

How many of us would say our feet are lovely to look at!  But GOD sees our daily steps as we walk in HIS path as just that:  beautiful and lovely!  If HE sees us as beautiful, shouldn’t we be looking back towards HIM?  When we look for JESUS shouldn’t we dwell there?  Scripture also tells us this:

PSALM 84: 1 “HOW LOVELY IS YOUR DWELLING PLACE, O LORD OF HOSTS.”

If we dwell there……..we long to be there!  Let your soul long for and desire the lovely house of GOD because in turn you will know this……

1 SAMUEL 1:9 “HE WILL GUARD THE FEET OF HIS FAITHFUL ONES.”

The beauty of HIS faithful ones, is in their faithful adoration of the ONE who is lovely!  The faithful look for all that is lovely and right and just in HIS word and in this world.  Because when things are hard they know they can draw near to their lovely Savior JESUS CHRIST.  And HE draws near to them.

Looking for the lovely and being certain it is there, requires perseverance in us.  Why?  Because our lives do have purpose in JESUS.  And we see the lovely in the shadow of the CROSS…….HIS amazing grace for us.

HOW LOVELY JESUS IS!

And how beautiful are the souls……..who sit at HIS feet!

It is easy for us to get discouraged in this world and feel as if we are on the brink of giving up.  But that is what the enemy wants.  Satan doesn’t like it when we focus our attention and priorities on JESUS and our faith.  He would love for us to set our minds on him.  So remember…….

If there is anything lovely and pure, just……honorable and true…….

DWELL THERE!

JESUS will transform and develop the lovely within you…….because HE loves you and knows with HIS touch that there is lovely within you that will grow to completion one day.  Remember you are loved by the LOVELY ONE more than you know!  So dwell there…….with HIM!

PSALM 33: 8 “LET ALL THE EARTH FEAR THE LORD; LET ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD STAND IN AWE OF HIM.”