Divinely Designed: A Godly Perspective on Inner & Outer Beauty

This post was taken from a talk I did for the women at First Baptist Church Denton in May 2024. I love to speak to groups! Interested in having me speak at your church or to your organization? You can learn more HERE.

In 2004, Dove (the soap, deodorant, and body wash people) launched their first Campaign for Beauty. They surveyed thousands of women worldwide about beauty. The most shocking thing they found? Only 2% of women considered themselves beautiful!

This year—20 years later—they followed up with another survey. This time they went even bigger. They surveyed 33K people across 20 countries. Women shared their thoughts about beauty from the US to Saudi Arabia and Brazil to China.

Here’s what they found when they asked women about OUTER BEAUTY:

• This time around, still only 4% of women considered themselves beautiful. (BTW, when I posed this question to my husband, he said 30%! MEN!🙄)
• 54% of woman agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic.

Here’s what they found when they asked women about INNER BEAUTY:

• 9 out of 10 women said real beauty is about being authentic and embracing your flaws.
• 77% strongly agree that beauty can be achieved through attitude, spirit, and other attributes that have nothing to do with physical appearance.

The world is constantly throwing mixed messages about beauty and appearance at us. With that constant bombardment, it can become difficult to have a healthy perspective of what beauty really is. So today, we’re going to look at God’s perspective on beauty! We’re combating lies (including the ones we may be telling ourselves) with truth.

GOD & BEAUTY

Did you know that the words “beauty and beautiful appear in the Bible over 100 times? In fact, beauty is a quality associated with the character of God.

God is not only the author and creator of beauty. He is beauty itself.

1 Chron.16:29 is one of the of the places where we read of God’s beauty:

“Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!”

This passage links God’s holiness and glory with beauty! We are called to come into God’s presence and worship what is beautiful about Him—His glory and holiness.

Psalm 27: 4 says,

“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”  

In Psalm 90:17, the Psalmist asks for the Lord’s beauty to rest upon him:

“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.

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON INNER BEAUTY

Do you know someone who is:

• Physically attractive. but so unkind, demanding, or rude that you find it difficult to see their outward attractiveness?
• So lovely, fun, kind, and thoughtful that you see them as even more beautiful than they already are?

That’s INNER BEAUTY! And as we just proved, it affects how we view OUTER BEAUTY.

We are valuable and have worth because we are HIS!

When my daughter was 3 years old, she came to me one afternoon as I was making dinner. She told me she wanted to go outside and play with her brothers. She asked me if I would please watch her lovey, Mimi.

If you’ve ever had a child with a lovey, you can probably guess what Mimi looked (and smelled!) like! Mimi was dirty, had holes in her, was fraying at the edges, and yes, she smelled!

But that didn’t matter to me! I gently took Mimi from Becca’s arms and cradled her in my own, assuring Becca that I would take good care of Mimi while she went out to play.

I cared for Mimi with tenderness, not because of the way Mimi looked (or smelled!) to me. Instead, I cared for her because she was precious to my daughter, whom I loved and adored.

Beauty and worth are ascribed by the owner.

You have beauty and worth because God created you, and you are HIS. How would it have been for me to dishonor my daughter by casting aside Mimi based on her appearance? Mimi had worth, and I cared for her tenderly because of the value my daughter placed on her.

What does it say to the Creator who ascribes beauty, worth, and value to us for us to denigrate His beloved? How do you treat yourself and talk to yourself? Do you treat yourself (or others) as if they have great worth and value to the Lord?

Remind yourself of Zephaniah 3:17:

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing!

You are His; you have worth, and that makes you beautiful!

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE ON OUTER BEAUTY

As Christians, sometimes we can get the idea that a focus on outward appearance is wrong and that focusing on it is shallow, vain, selfish, or sinful. Do you catch yourself feeling that way sometimes? I do!

You need to understand that our heart’s longing to be beautiful is not so much a product of our culture as it is innate, designed, and part of the very essence of who God made women to be.

Sure, our culture has distorted the idea of beauty, but the truth is that throughout scripture, the desire for a woman to be beautiful is there.

A woman’s outer beauty is mentioned in the Bible in multiple places! Three notable examples:

1. In Genesis 29:16-17, Jacob wants to marry Rachel, who was called “beautiful of form and face,” but Laban tricks him into marrying Leah instead. Later, of course, we see Rachel’s inner beauty praised as well. They’re linked!
2. In Esther 2:7 it describes Esther herself, saying she was lovely to look at and had a beautiful figure. Later in the book, we see the inner beauty of Esther discussed as well. They’re linked!
3. In Ruth Chapter 3, Naomi counsels her DIL to “wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes” before she goes to Boaz to ask him to be her Kinsman/Redeemer (essentially, she was asking him to marry her).

God and God alone defines beauty. He sets the standard for beauty and gives us clues throughout Scripture as to what defines a beautiful woman.

He is a God of beauty. What He makes is an outgrowth of Him! He is beautiful by His very nature. All of His creation is beautiful because it is an outgrowth of Him! He CANNOT not make something amazing and beautiful, because it would be against His very nature! (If you’ve ever been snorkeling and seen the colorful fish that live in the ocean, rarely—if ever—seen by anyone, you know this is true!)

But guess what? When it comes to us, He not only created us beautiful, but He takes it a step further. He tells us in Genesis 1:26, that we’re actually made in HIS IMAGE.

Psalm 139:14 says,

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.“

You are beautiful! I am beautiful! God made you, and He adores you! You are created in the image of the Holy God of the universe, and God cannot make something un-beautiful! Like a snowflake, every person is unique. No two are the same. What a miracle! God sees you as a masterpiece; when you look in the mirror, He wants you to see that, too.

Inner and outer beauty are inextricably linked.

What’s on the inside does matter the most. But it’s not the only thing that matters. In fact, inner and outer beauty are not mutually exclusive! Far from it.

What Does the Bible Say About the Link Between Inner & Outer Beauty?

Let’s examine four well-known passages of scripture that address beauty and discuss what they mean.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30:

What Does This Verse Mean?

It means that physical beauty will fade over time, but true inner beauty is timeless. Beauty fades with age, so if you are more concerned with your outer appearance than your inner beauty, you’ll struggle when the wrinkles come and the number on the scale goes up.

But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

1 Samuel 16:7

What Does This Verse Mean?

This scripture addresses the unfortunate truth that we tend to focus on what people look like on the outside. But God focuses on what people look like on the inside. We need to pray that God would help us see others (and ourselves) they way HE sees them. Remember, we can rest assured in our identity as precious, dearly beloved daughters of the KING! It matters most what God thinks of us, not other people, or some unattainable, idealized standard the world sets.

“Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important. It promises a reward in both this life and the next.”

1 Timothy 4:8

What Does This Verse Mean?

 Exercising and staying in shape is a good thing! We want to be good stewards of the body that God has given us! Every bit of scientific evidence supports the fact that our bodies work more efficiently and feel better if we are healthy and strong! Whether you’re doing chair workouts, running marathons, or something in between, you need to move your body every day.

Okay, let’s look at one last one. This one gets taken out of context all the time!

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, 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.”

1 Peter 3:3-4

What Does This Verse Mean?

This scripture doesn’t mean it’s wrong to braid your hair or wear stylish clothes and jewelry! Rather, Peter was warning the Christian women of the day not to follow the customs of some of the Egyptian women who, during that time period, spent hours and hours and hours working on their hair and makeup and finding the perfect outfit for the purposes of status. Peter is warning women not to dress in a way that merely calls attention to their external appearance.

How to Balance Inner and Outer Beauty

We’ve already acknowledged that the Bible discusses both inner and outer beauty. God doesn’t condemn outer beauty! Rather, He embodies beauty, and the universe He made is full of it!

But for us women, it can be challenging to strike a balance! The messages we get from the media, including social media, can confuse us and make us question what we know to be true in our minds and in our hearts. It’s not a matter of inner beauty or outer beauty—it’s more like inner beauty AND outer beauty!

How to Cultivate Inner Beauty

• Spend time with the One who made you. You cannot have a relationship with someone you don’t spend time with. Prioritize time in His Word and in prayer.
• Combat the lies you hear from the world or that you tell yourself by reminding yourself how precious you are to the one who made you.
• Be careful how you think of yourself and talk to yourself. Do not denigrate what God adores! Do not judge or denigrate others that God has made. They are just as precious to Him as you are.
• Ask Him to help you reflect Him in everything you do, say, and think.

How to Cultivate Outer Beauty

It is not sinful and selfish to want to look pretty on the outside. But remember that true beauty comes from a heart that is focused on God and a mind that is thinking of “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is excellent or praiseworthy.” (Philippians. 4:8)

You have freedom here! Pray through this with the Lord (Remember Philippians 4:6-7—we’re supposed to pray about everything), and set the standard for yourself with His guidance.

There’s a huge movement going on right now in the beauty arena about aging “naturally” vs. “anti-agers” (to whatever degree). God doesn’t draw a specific line in the sand, so we shouldn’t either. This is an area where we have freedom and can make our own choices. Be careful not to judge others when it comes to how they choose to beautify themselves or not.

• Use makeup if you want! (Or don’t; that’s up to you!) Personally, I’m for that! 😁 You can see my favorites HERE.
• Color your hair if you want. (Or don’t; that’s up to you!)
• Visit the dermatologist. Visit the aesthetician and take advantage of beauty treatments and procedures that are available now. (Or don’t; that’s up to you!)
• Use good beauty products. (HERE are my favorites.)
• Dress in clothing that makes you feel attractive and confident.
• Be careful not to judge others for how they choose to beautify themselves. That is sin.

Cotton Midi Shirt Dress (comes in another print also–see below) | Naturalizer Shoes (similar style) | Radley London Mini Flapover Crossbody Handbag (50% off right now)

While outer beauty should not be our chief focus and should not define who we are, it doesn’t mean that we should neglect our outer appearance. Inner beauty matters, but so does outer beauty, because the outward is connected to what’s going on inside, just like inner beauty is connected to outer beauty.

Our appearance, whether we like it or not, has a powerful effect on our behavior, how others perceive us, and even our confidence. And it’s okay to want to cultivate it.

Ground yourself in your divinely designed identity. Pray about it, then embrace the freedom God gives you to beautify yourself to the point at which you feel comfortable and you feel like the Lord is leading you.

What are your thoughts on this topic? I’d love to know! Please leave me a comment below and share your thoughts.