71. STRESSED? HOW TO ALWAYS LOOK RADIANT

As women who take pride in our appearance, we want to look our best and certainly try our utmost to do so. Some women spend quite a lot of money, invest in all kinds of makeup and facial treatments, so as to maintain a radiant and healthy glow. They are careful to eat the right foods, to exercise and apply all sorts of face creams to nourish and rejuvenate the face. There is collagen, retinol and Vitamin A and C to name a few!

Yet, despite our best efforts and ambitions, life happens and sometimes, the problems we face can be so much and so tumultuous, that it leaves the best looking of us looking stressed, dull, tired, haggard and worn, by life in general.

Christians are prime targets for a whole heap of problems, them being hated by the devil and the world because they love the true and living God and believe that his Son Jesus Christ is Lord. Each day, they fight against enemies without (the world and the devil) and the enemy within (their flesh), as they seek to obey the will of God, in a world that hates and rebels against him.

Life wants to bring us down, badly and this can be stressful. If not handled right and if as Christians, we are not careful, all that we are up against can eventually overwhelm us in grief, bitterness, resentment and worry, taking its toll on our face, appearance and overall demeanour.

Such attacks are not new. Even in the Bible days, this battle existed. In Psalm 43 for example, the Psalmist said:

• “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an UNGODLY NATION: O deliver me from the DECEITFUL AND UNJUST MAN. For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the OPPRESSION OF THE ENEMY? O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

• Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? HOPE IN GOD: for I shall YET praise him, who is the HEALTH OF MY COUNTENANCE, and my God.” (Psalm 43)

For the Psalmist, life was difficult! After all, he loved God and believed in him but the world he was in was ungodly, meaning that it had no reverence or fear for him and therefore did not regard him or care to obey him. As a result, many people the Psalmist encountered were deceitful, unkind and unjust and he was being oppressed by them. He would have also been oppressed by the devil who is usually behind the wicked attacks of people and perhaps even his own rebellious flesh.

In such troubling circumstances, it was easy for him to go around mourning, his soul feeling cast down and him disquieted within, meaning consumed with internal anxiety, restlessness and worry. This was so, especially when the situation seemed to not be changing and God seemed silent to his prayers and cries, to the point and for a duration of time, that it appeared as if he had cast him off, meaning, no longer considered him to be his child!

He therefore prayed to God (which was the best thing to do) and asked for guidance. He foresaw, that when his deliverance eventually came, he would go to the altar of God and render praises to him.

YET, the Psalmist knew that it was not enough to wait to praise God when he changed the tide. He was worthy of praise right in his adverse circumstances.

For, he remembered God’s character which included faithfulness. He knew most likely from experience, that no matter what was happening around him and how the situation looked, even where God chose to be silent for prolonged periods (as we saw in his Word that he sometimes does, like with his dealings with his people when in Egypt’s bondage), it did not mean that he had not heard his cries or seen his sufferings.

He heard and he knew. The Psalmist remembered therefore, that he could rest in this fact and HOPE in him, which, by his choosing to PRAISE him through the circumstances, would be enough to raise him up from his dejection and to give him a HEALTHY COUNTENANCE.

Similarly, as believers, when we are going through our trials, dealing with an ungodly and unfair world and the oppression of the enemy, we ought not to go around mourning as if we have no hope, as we are sometimes guilty of. We must remember who God is and what he has said and HOPE in HIM. Despite all that we are going through, we can YET praise him, for, from our experience and what we know of him in the Bible, he is able and he will work things out for our good and for his glory.

HE brings and sustains health to our countenance. Through all that we are going through, HOPING IN GOD by faith and trust in him and that he will do what is best, even when things seem not to change, is the antidote to our feelings of dejection, depression and sadness. It will bring life and liveliness to a mourning soul and by resetting our focus on HIM and not the problems, by offering PRAISE to him simply because he is worthy of same, in all circumstances, we find (and others will too), that we are radiant. Why? Because he (God) brings HEALTH TO OUR COUNTENANCE.

It may not be known or applied the world over but He (God) is the best beauty tip. A life lived by faith in him and hoping in Him and praising him, no matter what, is reflected in the health of that person’s countenance. This is because He (God) makes his children look radiant when they put their trust in Him.

(Written on 28th April, 2024)

Here is a portion of the beautiful words of Psalm 43 in song by Esther Mui: