God's Beauty Shop
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”
(Galatians 5: 22 - 26 KJV)
I believe that God has a beauty shop but it’s not like any beauty shop that we
know. As soon as we enter the beauty shop, Jesus tells us that He loves us
unconditionally and He holds us close to His heart. He gives us the biggest hug
that we have ever had and tells us that He understands how we are feeling and
that it hurts Him because we are hurting. He really does love us and care about
us.
When we go to a beauty shop to get our hair fixed, we leave looking better than
we did before we went there. However, the things that hurt Jesus and make our
hearts ugly are still in our hearts. When Jesus applies His beauty treatment of
mercy, grace, compassion, tenderness and forgiveness to our hearts, our hearts
smell good and they are clean and beautiful. He removes all of the bitterness,
resentment, criticism, prejudice, hatred and unforgiveness from our hearts and
replaces them with the fruits of the Spirit.
We need to go to His beauty shop every day for a treatment because every day
satan attacks us. If we don’t keep our eyes on Jesus and stay in His presence,
we give our enemy the opportunity to put negative things in our hearts that hurt
Jesus. Our hearts then become filled with resentment, with bitterness, with
jealousy, with hatred, with criticism and with unforgiveness.
What is in your heart today? Is your heart filled with the fruits of the Spirit
or is it filled with the fruits of satan? Do people see Jesus in your smile or
do they see a frown that comes from satan? Do you have the beauty of Jesus in
your heart or do you have the ugliness of satan in your heart? I urge you to go
to God’s beauty shop every day and allow Him to apply His beauty treatment to
your heart.
There may be days that you will need to go to His beauty shop more than once and
allow Him to give you a beauty treatment. Sometimes satan works overtime and our
hearts become filled again and again with things that are ugly and offensive to
Jesus.
Thank You, Father, for removing the things that are ugly and offensive to You
from our hearts and for replacing them with the fruits of the Spirit. Please
help us to bring joy to your heart instead of hurting you. Amen.
Joanne Lowe
January 30, 2008
joannelowe8@cox.net
http://joannelowe.blogspot.com
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