Body Image and the Bible

 By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy Of: i yunmai

Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” It is easy for us to look at the beauty of a rose, a sunset, or a fall-colored leaf and believe God’s works to be wonderful. But this passage is not talking about any of those things. It is talking about you! You are wonderfully made. Does your soul know that very well?

Did you know that you are incredibly loved by the Most High God? Not just your friend, your sister, your mom, your pastor, or your revered grandfather. No, you. You, yourself, as you are, are loved by Him!

It can be so easy to believe in the existence of God’s love for other people, but then to find it far harder to believe that His love is ours, as well, just as much as it is theirs. This is particularly challenging on those days when we really just do not like what we see staring back at us in the mirror. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always view the girl I see in the mirror as being treasured, lovable, or desirable. But she is!

As much as I have always wished I had a stronger jaw line, slimmer thighs, and a less prominent nose, none of those things make up my identity, nor are they accurate representations of how God made me. While I commonly see flaws in the mirror, those are my own false opinions of myself - not the truth of God crafted me.

The truth is that you and I have been made in the image of God with such care, precision, love, and artistry. We have been “created in Christ Jesus”, as His workmanship, according to Ephesians 2:10. We have been designed “for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that [we] should walk in them.” You, my friend, are not a mistake, an afterthought, or an accident. You have been created in the image of God Himself, tasked with purpose and mission, and made beautiful in His sight. That, my friend, is the truth of who you are.

Our identity is not based in how we think we look, what we do, or what others think of us. It is only based in who and how God created us to be and what He has to say about us. But until we grasp this truth for ourselves - and not just for our friends! - it will be incredibly hard (if not impossible!) for us to discover a firm foundation for our identity.

You see, if you base your identity in anything other than Christ and who He made you to be as a treasured, beautiful, beloved daughter of God, you will always find yourself on the proverbial identity roller coaster. When you base your identity in your looks (which change), your job (which is not guaranteed to last your whole life), or your relationships (which come and go, ebb and flow), you will be building on a faulty, wobbly, ever-changing, insecure foundation. You will find it hard to produce the good fruit God

designed for you to walk in when your roots of identity are weak and failing. You will find it hard to take every thought of yourself captive to God’s truth. And you will find it hard to break free from the lies your eyes tell you about yourself and ground your heart in truth.

But, if you instead begin with who God tells you you are (and remember - He cannot and does not lie!), then you will be basing your identity in the firm, unchanging foundation of the truth of God’s Word.

As challenging as body image issues are for us all as women, I would encourage you to immerse yourself in the Bible. Second Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” If you want to be equipped for the good works Ephesians 2:10 refers to, if you want to have healthy body image based in the truth of God rather than mere passing cultural fads, and if you want to be able to truly believe you are now and forevermore thoroughly and wholly loved by God, then you must start in God’s Word.

I dare you - make it your mission to be in the Word every day and see if you don’t have your view of yourself and your body radically transformed by the amazing love of our creator God!