WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Today, will you spend more time on how you look or how you pray? Proud women Having berated Judah for its immorality, the attention passes to the leaders of the nation (vs 13–15) and then to its women. The leaders are judged for their exploitation of the poor, but the women for their pride. It’s not so much the fashion that God judges, but what it reveals of the human heart. These women, wives and daughters of the wealthy, are arrogant and look down their noses at others. Their attire is described in detail, for all the pride and wealth that it represents will be stripped away when Jerusalem is destroyed, and their end will be shame (4:1). The likeness of Christ In an age when ‘image is all’, and the cut of a jacket or the length of a hemline can reveal the true fashionista at 50 paces, God’s attention is more intimate: he looks at the heart. It’s not that Christians, men and women, should deliberately look dowdy. Goodness knows, there are too many who, by paying no attention to their clothing, portray Christians as followers of a Lord who rejoices in the ugly, rather than in beauty. Within the bounds of decency, there’s no harm in dressing in as contemporary and attractive a way as possible. However, a heart transformed by grace into the likeness of Christ will always be more attractive than the best that Paris or Milan have to offer. Respond: ‘Lord, help the inner beauty of your grace to shine through me today.’ http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-06-29