His dwelling place

In August, the Lord started to speak to me about my lack of self-care. Hardship had taken a toil on my body and when things started to turn around, my mindset stayed stuck in its old ways.

As a girl who grew up with ¨ Comfort over beauty¨, I never really cared about my appearance unless I felt like I wanted to fit in with someone else or had to go to an event. My caring about my appearance relied on the approval of others.

This all changed when we went through 3 years of isolation and I started to realize that people come and go and so the only approval I really needed was the Lords´.

I didn´t have any finances for special products so I Googled my kitchen items and started with coffee scrubs and RAW honey masks. I was later gifted a beautiful cream (by my friend who had no idea I was doing this) made from Tallow and Jojoba oil, that really blessed my skin.

As I was spending every day in the Lords´ presence and He revealed bit by bit why this was so important to Him, I noticed something started to shift. As I fell more and more in love with Him, I also fell more in love with myself. Taking care of myself wasn´t purely about obeying His word anymore, but became an act of worship that I enjoyed. I started to see myself as beautiful and gladly took care of the skin He put me in. I started thanking the Lord every day for what I saw in the mirror, because what looked back started radiating a bit of His glory.

So when the Lord put it on my heart to share this with His daughters, I knew immediately why. It´s part of preparing His bride.

And so, as I share more on this topic, I pray that your heart will be open and you may let go of any false information that has been fed to you during your childhood or through social media. I pray that the Lord will reveal to you the steps you can take within your own capacity to care for yourself better so you can be more like Him.

The Lord took me through the book of Esther. I had read it over and over several times for a few months until I felt like the Holy Spirit was prompting me to read something else. One of the things that stood out to me was how Esther was chosen for her beauty and yet had to go through a year of isolation to beautify herself before she was presented to the King.

The future queen was not only to be beautiful for the King, but she was to be presented to the world as the King´s bride and therefor also represented the King. How she looked mattered.

We, as daughters of the Most High King, are literally His dwelling place and represent Him to the world. And He deserves to be represented well.

1 Corinthians 3:16 says: ¨Do you now know that you are God´s temple and that God´s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God´s temple, God will destroy that person. For God´s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Do not deceive yourselves.¨

Being God´s temple is serious business! He cares deeply on how we represent Him and He cares deeply about you. He made it that we feel good about ourselves when we take good care of ourselves. The world will tell you that happiness comes from letting yourself go and being proud of that, but God has paid a very high price to have you as His daughter and wants to take good care of you so we can trust in His ways. And when you listen and obey, His glory will shine brightly through you.

¨Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.¨

- Isaiah 60:1-3

You might be in a season where it seems impossible. But be encouraged! God doesn´t expect perfection, and He doesn´t want you to go on social media to find the best skin care routine. He wants you to sit down with Him and ask Him what next step you can take to honor Him this way.

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I had to repeat that in bold letters to emphasize. Let it sink in. God is saying that when you do as He says according to His word it will not feel like a heavy burden.

Taking care of yourself will not overwhelm you He promises WHEN you do it according to His way.

Whatever season you are in, whatever your budget may be. The Lord will guide you and provide for you, for this is according to His kingdom.