“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people.  You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people.  Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”

1Peter 2:9-10(NLT)

A good friend of mine shared that she got into a not so pleasant conversation with her 36-year-old daughter. Her daughter was going out with her boyfriend and the outfit she had on was very revealing in her mother’s opinion. They are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and my friend told her daughter that she was sending the wrong message. She told her that she wasn’t representing Christ, especially being in the company of the man she was trying to impress most. Her daughter was offended by this. She called her mother old-fashioned and told her that showing a little skin was not uncommon these days, even with Godly women.

Most of us care about our appearance, as well we should. Our clothing and style make a statement about how we feel about ourselves. The type of clothes we wear and the way we wear them tell others how we want to be perceived. So, it’s not surprising that we enjoy getting our hair and nails done and picking out outfits for the many occasions in our lives. But sometimes, our motivations go beyond adornment and fun. Some of us go a little overboard, and this can send the wrong message. We can become so consumed with how we look from the front angle that we unknowingly let the wrong things in the back door, and this can derail our hopes for the future.

I heard someone say, “God don’t care nothing about the clothes on my back. He’s not looking at what I have on.” The truth is that God cares about every detail of our lives. He cares about the motivations behind our actions because they speak to what is going on in our hearts. They convey if our greatest desire is to please Him and live through the example of Christ, or if we are chiefly motivated by our own desires and personal agenda.

Sometimes, a need to appeal to men is running the show, and we don’t give it much thought. Many women want to be loved so much that they choose provocative ways to seek attention, and this doesn’t exactly square with God’s commandment in Matthew 6:33 to seek Him and His righteousness first.

Fashionable clothing and shoes are beautiful adornments to cover our bodies, but Adam and Eve showed us that we can cover with the wrong motivation in our hearts. After they sinned against God, Genesis 3:7(NLT) tells us, “At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.” The first couple used garments made of fig leaves to cover the shame of their sin. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we don’t have to do this. He offered his life on the cross so that all his brothers and sisters can stand before the presence of God with no sense of guilt, sin, or condemnation. Jesus Christ is our covering, and every moment of each day should be spent demonstrating our gratitude for this.

Galatians 5:1 tells us now that we have been freed from the slavery of sin, we should never let anyone, or anything put that harness of slavery back on us. It stands to reason that God wouldn’t want us to cover ourselves with anything that makes sin look good. Instead, our motivation should be to make Him look good and to represent His glory.

The sacrifice of Christ teaches us about the depth of God’s love. It also teaches us that we must release things that are no longer useful to our lives in Christ so that we make greater room for those things that will take us higher. God commands us in Proverbs 4:23(NLT), “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” This verse should remain in the forefront of our minds continually. Our external circumstances and situations flow from what is going on in our hearts. So, if pleasing God isn’t primary and if honoring Him isn’t taking up all the space in our hearts, we have a problem.

When our lives reflect that we honor God through Jesus Christ, we are rewarded continually. When our lives reflect that we don’t care about honoring God with all that we do, things will not turn out well. You and I can’t just assume we’re honoring Him the way we should, God is the One who determines this. In Romans 12:2, He tells us not to be conformed to the culture and behaviors of this world. Instead, we are to let Him transform us from the inside out as we change the way we think to line up with the mind of Christ.

Heavenly Father doesn’t want to make our pleasure any less. Quite the contrary. He wants our lives abounding with His love, peace, joy, and power, and He tells us exactly how this is achieved. We are to seek Him first. This is the only presentation that matters, that we are seeking God first in all that we do and carrying ourselves in a way that honors His Word and Will. To seek God first means that we consult Him about all the details of our lives. This includes any questions about what is or isn’t appropriate to wear.

Philippians 2:3(NKJV) tells us, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”  This verse makes it clear that humility and Godliness are our covering, and nothing else we put on should overshadow them. So, rather than ignoring her mother’s wisdom altogether, the daughter should have given pause to the feedback. It was a wake-up call from the Spirit that her motivation was off and needed to be rerouted. It was a missed opportunity to examine her heart and to make sure that her covering on the outside was a true representation of the love of Christ on the inside. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“Presentation Is Everything” written by Kim Times, edited by Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!