Week 2 ~ LIE: I'm not beautiful

What is beauty?


What do you find beautiful?

God calls us Beloved! We are His Cinderella!

The king is enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.
Psalm 45:11
Enthralled= filled with wonder and delight, captivated, enslaved!
What do you believe about yourself?
 A More Beautiful You

While we were chatting, I turned on the song “Love Story,” and you all got excited and started singing along right? Think about that song! We all love that song b/c we want someone to find us beautiful and that will knell to ground and pull out a ring!!!!  We all want a love story. Now think about that story and that boy you were thinking about… whoever that is… replace him with JESUS!


Does that seem weird? Seem wrong to think of Jesus like that?

Well He calls us His Beloved, His love, His BRIDE!!!! That’s crazy!!! Jesus is our groom, our fiance! That’s awesome!! All the longings we have to have a boyfriend, to be called beautiful, to have someone fight for us, JESUS can do it all!!!!

God longs for you! He enjoys you! He wants you give your WHOLE heart to Him, including your insecurities, passions, dreams, longings, problems, doubt!

What insecurities do you have about yourself?? Be honest!

Look around the room. Do you see anyone who is ugly? Who God did a bad job on? NO!!! (Name specific things that are beautiful about each person!) What do you find most beautiful about another girl?? I FIND JOY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING!

What do you see about yourself? How do you identify yourself? We always think Cinderella is someone else!

We are more concerned about being beautiful on the outside and not on the inside.

YOUR WORTH IS NOT BASED ON HOW YOU LOOK!!!!!!!!! PERIOD!!! There is nothing wrong with being beautiful until it becomes prideful. Like the pageant some of you were in. There is nothing wrong with getting dressed up and feeling beautiful until it becomes WHO YOU ARE! Giving WAY TOO much attention to physical beauty (how long do you stand in front of a mirror everyday?)

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. ⁴Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. ⁵For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.
1 Peter 3:3-5

1 Timothy 2:9-10

Gentle and quiet spirit does NOT mean doesn’t talk and isn’t loud!!!!! Thank God! It means a heart of faith, a heart that trusts God, a spirit that has been quieted by His love and filled with his peace!

God thinks you are INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL. He knows you completely and sees all of you, and still calls you beautiful! He SEES YOU! HE NOTICES EVERYTHING YOU DO! Why try to become satisfied in ANYTHING else??

Are you using things to hide the true beauty God gave you? Are you HIDING behind make-up, activities, friends, etc? (make-up is not a BAD thing unless you are using it to hide who you really are!) Are you afraid of people knowing you’re true beauty and who you really are? Are you pretending?

We always focus on the negative things about ourselves when God wrote a love letter of 100s of pages to US!!

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a women who fears the Lord is to be Praised
Proverbs 31:30

We should have holy beauty! Our beauty should draw others to Christ!


*ACTIVITY*
Take the girls' pictures. Print two copies out, 8x10 or 5x7 (if 5x7, paste onto larger paper). Give the girls both of their pictures. On one picture have them write all the things THEY think about themselves, good or bad (big pimple, fat, thin, cute, unwanted...).  On the other picture have them write the things that GOD says about them. This is a REALLY powerful exercise that they can keep as a reminder of WHO and WHOSE they are.

 

BiBlE sTuDy...

So... I've decided that I want to document all of the Bible Studies I have taught to the youth girls at our church.  I (with my dear friend, Katelyn) started leading a group of girls in January. The first event was a mother/daughter dinner. We got to know them, prayed together, and laid out our expectations and hearts for the Bible Study.  That week we had 7 girls! We thought that was amazing... and it was!
The next week was our first week with just the girls.  There was 16 girls there! Wow!!
As of now, 10 months later, there are 38 girls on the roster!! What?! How crazy is our God!
Now... I will begin to disclose the wonderful hours, days, and months that God has revealed through teaching these girls. I have grown so much by allowing God to minister THROUGH me. Maybe these revelations will come to life as they have to me.
Last semester we discussed the lies and deceptions that Satan tells us, and how we are suppose to replace that with God's truth.  Here we go... WEEK 1:

Can Christians be held captive to lies?

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatains 5:1


The illustration I used was one I saw at another camp I worked at.  We, as Christians, believe lies that Satan tells us. The lies are shown by feathers stuck in our head. We look silly. We saw we are Christians and surrendered to Christ, yet we have ridiculous feathers sticking out of our head because of the deceptions we believe from media, others, ourselves, the scales, and everything else. 

Satan/World promises the best, but pays with the worst; they promises honor, and pays with disgrace; they promises pleasure, and pays with pain; they promises profit, and pays with loss; they promises life, and pays with death.


If it doesn’t line up with the word of God, it is a lie, no matter the source!

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
2 cor 11:13-15

Do you act as Satan’s worker sometimes? Feeding lies to those around you? How you dress? How you talk?
It was the woman deceived first, not Adam. Why?
Maybe because if we as women buy into his deception, we will influence those around us to sin

Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

John 8:43-45

Sin is fun. Sin is alluring. STOP AND THINK!!


Deception to Bondage:
- Listen to a lie (I don’t look like those girls)
- Dwell on the lie (Am I fat? Do I need to lose 5 pounds? Am I ugly?)
- Believe the lie (I am fat. I do need to lose weight. I am ugly)
- Act on the lie ~ every act of sin in our lives begins with a lie. Next time it is easier to believe the lie… we end up in bondage! As a captive!

EVERY AREA OF BONDAGE IN OUR LIVES CAN BE TRACED BACK TO A LIE!

We believe lies about God and ourselves. We must identify those lies and replace them with God’s TRUTHS!!!

The next few weeks we will be discussing lies we believe and how we can transform those lies into TRUTHS and FREEDOM!

James 4:6-8

…God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash you hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!