Godly Character Matters

     As a church we have been walking through the last 200 years of the Old Testament in 2 Kings, Daniel, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah.  The time has been profitable and greatly challenging to see all of the things that are so much like our current culture in the West.  As we came to Esther 2, we see the Persian culture as one what is totally obsessed with outer beauty and driven by King Xerxes who has a warped view of beauty and sex.  Xerxes (his Greek name) or Ahasuerus (Persian name) loved luxury and impressing people.  He once took 180 days to show off the riches of his glory - think about that for a moment - 180 days to show off his external glory, not his character.  To show his character would have taken about 10 seconds.
     He loved being impressive and he is representative of our world.  Our world thinks that what we have and who we know has more value than who we are on the inside.  The pattern of our world is driven to show others that we have value based on our what we look like, the size of a bicep or whether we have less wrinkles than the person across the street.  To be as beautiful as we can, just as is in Esther 2, we must go through "Beauty Treatments".  These treatments have wreaked havoc upon us and our culture.  We are absolutely confused about real beauty.  Just look at every magazine at the grocery store where every article is focused showing our value through some type of external.
     What is a "Beauty Treatment"?  They come in all kinds of forms.  Here are some:

• Cosmetic Surgeries of all kinds from facelifts, breast surgery, botox, and tummy tucks.
• Go in debt to live in a certain area so that an address defines us
• Drive a certain car so that a symbol marks us
• Comb-Over - What is this?  It is a vain man trying finding value in the amount of roots on a head.  Can you say Donal Trump?
• Resume - people lie on these all the time now to show themselves more than they truly are.

I could go on and on.  Sadly, Christians fall into this same trap.  What is the answer then?  As with everything, we need to get back to the truth of scripture.  God has always said the same thing about our beauty and worth and it has nothing to do with externals, it has everything to do with who He is and what He has done.  Any drift away from those 2 things is a drift toward valuing that which is external.  Look at possibly the greatest verses that addresses this issue:

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.  I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth"... Psalm 139:13-15 


Look at the significance of these words and their implications:

• We are formed by Him - therefore all of our size, look, sound, etc. has been formed by Jesus.  If the voice we hear more is the world's, then we will naturally try and get in line and let the world's ways form us.
• Wonderful are Your Works and my soul knows it very well - The implication here is that God does everything absolutely well.  If we never get to the place where we embrace that as Creator, Jesus is all good, then our soul will never know that who we are is very well.  David said we are skillfully wrought by God.  We are wonderful, as is.

You see, it is Godly Character that matters.  You see, since He created us skillfully, He knows there is not an improvement that man can do that adds value to who we are.  We are valuable simply from the fact that we have been formed and created by Him.  This should be enough for us.

My prayer is that our soul will come to know this well and that contentment settles deep within us.