I was at the hair cutters recently, and the lady who was cutting my hair said, “Uhm…that’s not good!” So I asked what wasn’t good? And she said, your hair is getting a little thin on the back of your head. I just shrugged and said “oh well.” And she looked shocked at my reaction, and said, “No…I’m serious!” To which I replied, “so what? It doesn’t bother me.” She couldn’t believe I wasn’t afraid of getting a bald spot in a few years back there. I told her, “It’s just hair!”
People in the world today have become obsessed with the way they look. Some people spend thousands of dollars getting plastic surgeries, implants, and other things just to keep from looking older, or just to change the way they look. It’s too bad people aren’t as obsessed with how the look on the inside!
Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with looking nice, keeping ourselves in shape, etc., in fact – we should keep our bodies in order. After all, as a Christian, our body belongs to God. However, when we spend all of our attention on our outward appearance and neglect what is on the inside – that’s where we mess up.
1 Samuel 16:7 tells us, “…For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” Keeping our heart right before God is what we should focus our attention on. Some people have no problem spending lots of time, money, and energy improving their outward appearance, but when it comes to spending time renewing their minds and getting to know God, they seem to run out of time and energy to put towards that.
Living in a world that is obsessed with outward appearances, it is easy for us to get caught up in that WRONG obsession and neglect what is FAR more important – what is on the INSIDE!
We should try spending more of our efforts and energy making sure our hearts are clean and right before God. Our outward appearances are just temporary. We get old, our bodies decay, and eventually we die. But what is on the INSIDE of us matters for ALL OF ETERNITY!
Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Remember, God created each of us exactly the way HE wanted us. And as a Christian, we belong to HIM! So, focus your attention on what is RIGHT – bringing GLORY to GOD. And THAT starts with WHAT IS ON THE INSIDE!!