16 Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.—Psalm 90:16-17
Beloved…How can we please God? When will His beauty be upon us? Psalm 34:5 has the answer. When we look to our God in faith, He shines upon us. If we walk in unbelief our faces are ashamed.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.—Psalm 34:5
I love that as I draw near to my beautiful Savior, ugly, sinful and unholy me becomes beautiful. So beautiful that others can see that I belong to Him…because by His grace, I begin to resemble Him more and more.
In Christ, I am “radiantly” beautiful. He covers my sin and shame. He shines through me and reaches the hearts of those around me with His grace and love. Fear is no longer mine because I am secure in Him. The name of the eternal God is written on my heart. I belong to Him and nothing can separate me from His love. Those who fight against me, fight against Him and will perish. It is them who should fear.
Father…cover me with the beauty of Your self-sacrificing love! Clothe me in the majesty of Your humility. Display in me the splendor of Your lovingkindness. Lift up the light of Your countenance upon me and establish the work of my hands. I want to share in Your work. I want to live for the eternal…believing You every moment of every day. I want “my work” here on earth to live on in the lives of my children and grandchildren. Prosper and establish the work of my hands. May whatever I do in word or deed, be done in the name of Your precious Son, Jesus, by the power of Your Spirit who dwells in me.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.—2 Corinthians 3:18
For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.—2 Corinthians 4:6
"The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.—Deuteronomy 28:9-10
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.—Philippians 3:12-16
1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.—Psalm 121:1-2
