“But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. -1 Peter 3:4
I can’t get away from this verse!
I keep thinking of it, meditating on it, and pondering it. It began with a woman I met at a prayer meeting. God showed me her beautiful, gentle, quiet spirit. Ever since then this verse has captured my heart!
Over time God began to show me other women who possessed this “imperishable beauty” as well and I began to see it as one of the most precious things that God could give a woman and it became exceedingly beautiful to me.
The Bible says that God considers this quality of a gentle and quiet spirit in a woman to be “very precious in His sight”.
If God says something is very precious to Him we ought to stop and think about that! If it’s very precious to Him, it ought to be very precious to me!!
What’s amazing to me is that my heart has taken on His heart about this!!! I’m finding this quality to be one of the most beautiful things a woman can possess. How precious it is! Praise God I’m seeing as my Father in Heaven sees!!
I think the sweetness of Jesus must be the most beautiful adorning that a woman can clothe herself with. The softness, sweetness, and gentle beauty of Jesus is the crowning jewel of a woman of God.
There’s been a tremendous push in the church to present women as powerful and authoritative. I have no doubt that this is true, and it is one of the pictures of a woman of God that we see in Proverbs 31. But how often do you hear the Church teaching that women should strive to be quiet and gentle in spirit? Are we afraid that by teaching such a thing that we would be telling women not to be powerful? I would remind you that the most powerful person who ever lived described Himself as “meek and lowly of heart”. This blessedness is found in God’s own Son! It’s a chief mark of His character and one of the things we find so delightful about Him. Surely if it’s one of the things we deem as precious about the Lord Jesus Christ, we should consider it as most precious in a woman of God.
No amount of physical beauty can make up for a lack of this inner sweetness and spiritual glow. The presence of Christ makes a woman’s face radiant. This is not something that the world can produce with makeup.
When the Bible tells us that a woman should not focus on making herself beautiful by the braiding of hair and clothing, it is not saying that a woman cannot dress attractively or have beautiful hair! Are we not told that a woman’s hair is her glory?
“If a woman has long hair it is her glory”. – 1 Corinthians 11:15
If the Bible was trying to tell us that women should not make themselves physically attractive surely it would not say such a thing!
We read of Esther who was physically beautiful, and we know that Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was actually an extremely attractive woman. So much so that Abraham feared that he might be killed because somebody might want to take her from him since she was so beautiful.
“As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live.” -Genesis 12:11-12
Even though Sarah was so outwardly attractive, we are told that her true beauty came from her submissiveness.
“For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord…” -1 Peter 3:5-6
Now before you complain about this I would like to remind you that the true beauty of Jesus was also in His submissiveness to the Father!
Oh, how we need to understand things from God’s perspective!
In even the most physically beautiful woman the imperisable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit eclipses everything she may naturally possess. It makes sense that it would be so by the mere fact that being imperishable this beauty comes from a completely different realm!
Is there anything more beautiful than to be clothed with God’s nature? Is there anything more beautiful than the face of Jesus??
The fact that this is an imperishable beauty tells me that it is not of this world. There is no way that natural beauty can compare to that which is heavenly! And although it is true that God has made both the natural and the imperishable, the glory of Heaven, far exceeds the glory of Earth.
This kind of beauty will be missed by those who don’t love the Lord Jesus because this kind of beauty is the manifestation of Jesus Himself.
I personally find this imperishable beauty the most attractive thing that a woman can possess because it shows me that the Lord Jesus has captured her heart to such an extent that I can now see Him through her!
Woman of God, are you one who possesses this imperishable beauty and yet remain single and wonder why? May I suggest that your Heavenly Father may simply be protecting you? He is jealous over you! Not just anyone will do! You’re a jewel in Jesus’ crown and God intends to keep you that way! It’s not a cause for despair, God knows how to bring you the right man!
Man of God, if Jesus is your Lord, look beyond mere physical beauty. I’m not at all saying that it’s wrong to notice that a woman is physically beautiful. Some in the church are tempted to be more spiritual than God and act like physical attraction shouldn’t matter. This is obviously not true!
“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” -Song of Songs 4:9
If I was a woman I wouldn’t be impressed by a man who didn’t find me physically attractive and I certainly don’t think the bible teaches such a thing. But if Jesus is your Lord you want a wife who also has Jesus as her Lord and that means that you should be looking for somebody who has the imperishable beauty of Jesus living inside of her.
I don’t believe that this nature of a quiet and gentle spirit is formed in a person who is not desiring to be obedient to God. Is the nature of Jesus formed in a person who is disobedient to Him? Hardly! Obedience is a prerequisite to having the nature of Jesus formed within us. So if you see a woman who truly has this nature of a quiet and gentle spirit (not that of a human spirit which is sweet, but that which is the very sweetness of Jesus Himself) it signifies a person who is on the path of obedience. You have before you a woman who desires to have Jesus Christ as Lord of her life, and is actually proving her love of Jesus by obedience to Him.
When a woman carries this most beautiful “presence of the Lord” within her a wonderful thing happens. When you leave her presence you leave with the Lord Jesus on you! There’s a fragrance that goes with you after you’ve been in her presence. There’s a lingering fragrance of the Lord Jesus, the perfume of His love that she wears, which remains on you!
Oh, the lingering perfume of the Lord Jesus that a woman of God carries!
Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad.” -Song of Song 4:16
“Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes…” -Song of Songs 1:3
Are you a woman who possesses this imperishable beauty? There’s no question that it’s very precious to those around you. But the best part of all, is that you’ve just caught the eye of God!
“But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.“ -1 Peter 3:4