Jesus Christ | Craig T. Owens

March 2026
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Thursdays With Spurgeon—Where We Live

February 24, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Charles Spurgeon. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Spurgeon” in the search box to read more entries.

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

Where We Live

If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)

Believers do not enjoy the gifts of divine grace all at once. Coming to Christ, we are saved by a true union with Him. But it is by abiding in that union that we further receive the purity, the joy, the power, and the blessedness that are stored up in Him for His people. See how our Lord states this when He speaks to the believing Jews in the eighth chapter of this gospel, at the thirty-first and thirty-second verses: ‘Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”’ We do not know all the truth of God at once; we learn it by abiding in Jesus.

Perseverance in divine grace is an educational process by which we learn the truth of God fully. The emancipating power of the truth is also gradually perceived and enjoyed. The truth will make you free. One bond after another snaps, and we are free indeed. …

Every believer should be an abider, but many have hardly earned the name as yet. … You have to live with Christ to know Him, and the longer you live with Him, the more you will admire and adore Him, and the more you will receive from Him, even grace for grace. … Jesus, in the esteem of abiding believers, grows sweeter and dearer, fairer and lovelier each day. Not that He improves in Himself, for He is perfect. But as we increase in our knowledge of Him, we appreciate more thoroughly His matchless excellences.

From The Secret Of Power In Prayer

All of us probably know what “house rules” are. In my home growing up, we took off our shoes when we came in the door; family members came in through the garage door, unless we were bringing a friend home, and then we came in through the front door. A casual observer may not catch these things, but the longer you were in our home, the more clearly you would see these things.

In the same way, we get more familiar with the “house rules” of our heavenly home the more time we spend there. My cousin Dick Brogden pointed out, “The word ‘abide’ in Greek (meno) is where we get our word mansion, our home, where we spend our time.”

It’s also as we abide with Jesus that we get to know His heart. And then as we get to know Him better we can pray prayers more aligned to His will, prayers that He delights to answer. This makes our relationship with Him sweeter and sweeter. Just as the old chorus says—

He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by

Oh what a love between my Lord and I

I keep falling in love with Him

Over and over and over and over again

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: abiding, Charles Spurgeon, Christian, Dick Brogden, fruitful, Gospel of John, Jesus Christ, prayer, quote. Leave a Comment »

The Incomparable Jesus

February 21, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

C.S. Lewis, like many atheists, wondered if the God of the Bible might be an egomaniac because He is always encouraging people to praise Him. In his book Reflections on the Psalms, Lewis wrote a thoughtful response to this after he had become a Christian:

“Just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it. ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ … I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. … This is so even when our expressions are inadequate, as of course they usually are. But how if one could really and fully praise even such things to perfection—utterly ‘get out’ in poetry or music or pain the upsurge of appreciation which almost bursts you? Then indeed the object would be fully appreciated and our delight would have attained perfect development. The worthier the object, the more intense this delight would be.”

His phrase, “our expressions are inadequate” is especially true when we are attempting to appreciate and praise the Infinite, the Eternal, the Omnipresence, the Omnipotence of our God and Savior! But the biblical authors call for Christians to mature in this—we want to keep praising, keep expressing, until we finally find the perfect fulfillment in His presence.

Paul talks about the maturing nature of love—when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child (1 Corinthians 13:11)—but then he prays for us to grow in both our understanding and our expressions of our Savior’s love (Ephesians 1:17-19).

I like the wording of Ephesians 1:19 in the King James Version: the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward. The word “exceeding” means God pours out in a way that is beyond human imagining. The Greek word that Paul uses for “greatness” is only used here, and it reinforces the truth that God is beyond our full comprehension. And then Paul adds that this overflowing, incomparable power is directed “to us-ward”!

Paul then prays for us to be able to understand ever-increasing new dimensions of this transcendent power and ability that God directs to us through His Son Jesus, and for us to be able to express it (Ephesians 3:14-19). In other words, we are to grow in our experience of Jesus so that we can grow in our praise to Jesus.

The incomparable Jesus means at least four things for us. It means Jesus is…

…beyond comparison. Isaiah, God Himself, and the psalmists ask rhetorically, “Who is like God? Who could ever compare to Him?” (Isaiah 40:13-14, 18, 25; Psalm 89:5-8).

…matchless in His power. Isaiah 40:12 says God holds the waters of the world in the hollow of His hand. How much water is this? Scientists estimate the Earth’s water supply to be 326 quintillion gallons of water (that’s 326 followed by 18 zeros)! Not only does God hold all of the water, but He directs its activities on behalf of His children (Exodus 15:11-13).

…unequaled in knowledge. Isaiah 40:12, 26 tell us that all of the stars in our universe fit onto God’s outstretched hand, and that He knows all of the stars by name. How many stars is this? Astronomers calculate the heavens to contain 10 septillion stars (that’s 10 followed by 24 zeros)! Not only does God know each star by name, He knows each human by name, and the smallest of details about each of them (Isaiah 49:16; Matthew 10:29-31).

…inimitable in His care. We humans can get to the end of our strength, but God never does. He cares for us unlike anyone else or anything else ever can (Isaiah 40:28-31). The Lord hears His people when they call to Him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles (Psalm 34:17).

Knowing we have a Savior like this, why would you ever settle for anything less The Genuine?!

Our incomparable Jesus wants us to pray in His incomparable name so that our incomparable Father can answer in a way that brings Him incomparable glory! We’re helped, He’s lifted up, and others are drawn to Him.

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If you’ve missed any of the messages in this series on prayer, you can find a list of all of the messages by clicking here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, astronomy, C.S. Lewis, Calvary Assembly of God, Ephesians, Exodus, God's glory, Gospel of Matthew, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, oceanography, praise, prayer, Psalm, quote, sermon, video, worship, YouTube. 2 Comments »

The Preeminent Jesus

February 14, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

There is only one Jesus, but He is presented to us in the Bible with many facets, and we get to pray in all of those facets of His name!

One of the facets of Jesus is His preeminence. The dictionary defines preeminent as “above and before others; superior; surpassing.”

The Bible uses the word preeminence to mean “holding the first place.” The apostle Paul uses this idea of Christ’s supremacy when He describes Him this way—

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the FIRSTBORN over all creation. For in Him ALL things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; ALL things have been created through Him and for Him. He is BEFORE ALL things, and in Him ALL things hold together. And He is the HEAD of the body, the church; He is the BEGINNING and the FIRSTBORN from among the dead, so that in EVERYTHING He might have the SUPREMACY. For God was pleased to have ALL His fullness dwell in Him. (Colossians 1:15-19, emphasis mine)

Therefore God exalted Him to THE HIGHEST PLACE and gave Him the name that is above EVERY name, that at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and EVERY tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11, emphasis mine)

Praying in Christ’s preeminence means that we never have to settle for less than God’s best!

When we began this series, I mentioned that there were some people who misuse the words of Jesus. Specifically the phrase where Jesus says, “I will do whatever you ask in My name” (John 14:13, 15:16, 16:23). They have taken this as license to ask for things for their own comfort, or claiming that praying “in the name of Jesus” means that we never have to experience pain, poverty, or any setbacks.

But preeminence ≠ prosperity!

Prosperity wrongly says Christians will never have trouble, never experience poverty or lack, and can claim and obtain lavish things just by invoking “in the name of Jesus.”

Preeminence correctly says that Christians may have trouble, or poverty, or even martyrdom, but that Christ’s preeminence gets the final word, the decisive word, and the best word!

Jesus didn’t pray to be removed from trials. The godly apostle Paul experienced ample trouble, and so did the heroes of faith (John 12:27-28; 2 Corinthians 11:23-27; Hebrews 11:35-38). Yet even in all of these troubles and pain and hardship, Christ’s preeminence prevails!

As Paul said in Colossians 1, Jesus was the “firstborn from among the dead,” meaning that He is now preeminent even over death! Jesus said that His followers will—not “may”—experience persecution here, just as those heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11 did, but that the rewards in eternity are beyond compare (see 1 Corinthians 15:55, 57-58; Matthew 5:11-12; Hebrews 11:39-40).

Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn It Is Well With My Soul. One of the stanzas reminds us:

Though satan should buffet though trials should come

Let this blest assurance control

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate

And has shed His own blood for my soul

Praying in the name of the preeminent Jesus does at least four things for us:

Gives us a surpassing victory—Romans 8:31-32, 37
Keeps us humble and God glorified—2 Corinthians 4:7
Detaches us from earthly things that would take our eyes off of Jesus—Philippians 3:8
Keeps us focused on Heaven—2 Corinthians 4:17

(check out all of the verses listed above by clicking here)

Let me say it again: Praying in Christ’s preeminence means that we never have to settle for less than God’s best!

God’s best is not awaiting us here on earth, but it is our promised eternal reward for persevering to the end. It may seem tough at times, but our preeminent Savior walks with us every step of the way!

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series on prayer, you can find links to all of those messages by clicking here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Calvary Assembly of God, Colossians, Gospel of John, Gospel of Matthew, Hebrews, Horatio Spafford, Jesus Christ, Philippians, prayer, preeminence, rewards, Romans, sermon, video, YouTube. 4 Comments »

Links & Quotes

February 11, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

John Piper wrote to pastors, “That is the main task of preaching, and the main purpose of small groups and all the ministries of the church: helping people see the greatness of what Christ has purchased for everyone who will value it above the world. Helping people see it and savor it, so that God’s superior worth shines in their satisfaction and in the sacrifices that come from such a heart.”

“The gospel of Christ, what is it? We look at the last two words, ‘of Christ.’ Indeed, if you understand Christ, you understand the gospel. Christ is the Author of it. He, in the council chamber of eternity, proposed to become the Surety for poor fallen man! He, in the fullness of time, worked out eternal redemption for as many as His Father had given Him. He is the Author of it as its Architect and Builder. We see in Christ Jesus the Alpha and the Omega of the gospel. He has provided in the treasury of grace all that is necessary to make the gospel the gospel of our salvation. And as He is the Author of it, so He is the matter of it. It is impossible to preach the gospel without preaching the Person, the work, the office, and the character of Christ. If Christ is preached, the gospel is promulgated, and if Christ is put in the background, then there is no gospel declared.” —Charles Spurgeon

Would you prayerfully consider supporting my Patreon page at only $5 per month?

Josh McDowell addresses the question, “Did Jesus say He is God?”

Marshall Seagal wrote an insightful article about patience. He notes, “Patience exists only in a world of disruption, delays, and disappointment. It grows only on the battlefield. We cannot practice patience unless our circumstances call for it—and the circumstances that call for it are the kinds of circumstances we wouldn’t choose for ourselves.”

The Biblical Archeological Report has a history of Egyptian Pharaoh Hophra that is quite fascinating. It’s always so interesting to me to watch how these archeological finds square with the historical records contained in the Bible.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apologetic, archeology, Charles Spurgeon, Egypt, historicity, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Josh McDowell, leadership, Marshall Segal, pastors, patience, Patreon, pharaoh, preaching, Psalm, quotes, video, YouTube. Leave a Comment »

The Divine Jesus

February 7, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

I was teaching a class for my team members, and at one of the breaks a new employee came up to me to say how much he was enjoying the day, and to tell me that he would like to do what I was doing. I asked him, “But do you want to do what I did in order to do what I’m doing?” When I explained that I read about 10-12 books for this training time, and that it took me about 40 hours to prepare for our 4-hour class, he didn’t seem as interested.

Most people don’t want to put in the work, but they just want the results. As Christians we need to remember these words from William Penn: “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”

The human Jesus understands and empathizes with our painful struggles, and the divine Jesus helps us endure through these painful struggles to get the rewards on the other side.

What do we mean by divine? The dictionary simply defines it as things relating to God or gods, so we need to use some context to help us understand who this divine Jesus is. After all, the New Testament refers to both Jesus and Artemis as divine (Romans 1:20; Hebrews 1:1-3; Acts 19:27).

One way we can distinguish is by doing what the writer of Hebrews advised: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). We see that the so-called worshippers of Artemis were more interested in their own financial gain than they were her divinity (Acts 19:23-27). In contrast, the apostle Paul demonstrated a totally Jesus-focused lifestyle: “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).

Paul was following Jesus, and called all Christians to do the same. He noted that Jesus gave up all of His divine privileges to become our human Jesus, but because of this obedience, God made the divinity of Jesus shine more gloriously than anything else in creation! Then Paul transitioned to a word specifically for Christians:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

In essence this is like Jesus saying, “I want you to have what I have, but you will have to do what I did to get it: That is, go through the painful struggles of life. But I will be right here with you every single step of the way!”

The writer of Hebrews echoes this idea by reminding us that Jesus was made perfect through suffering, and so are we. So he calls us to “not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” He also reminds us that although the times of suffering are not pleasant, there is an unimaginable reward on the other side (Hebrews 2:9-11; 10:35-39; 12:1-11).

I especially like this conclusion: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

The divine Jesus has made it possible for us to be rewarded as He was rewarded! His divine power leads to our divine nature. And His divine power helps us defeat the world’s weapons (2 Peter 1:3-4; 2 Corinthians 10:4)

Jesus asks, “Do you want to do what I did in order to do what I’m doing?” The power of the divine Jesus can help us be perfected, but we only get to this perfected place by suffering as He suffered. That’s why we need to know our human Jesus understands, empathizes, and helps.

Most people don’t want to put in the work, but they just want the rewards. Our divine Savior helps us work out what God has worked in us. He helps us get the rewards!

If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series on prayer called Awesome: Learning to pray in the awesome name of Jesus, you can find all of the messages by clicking here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 2 Corinthians, 2 Peter, Book of Acts, Calvary Assembly of God, divinity, Hebrews, Jesus Christ, maturity, pain, Philippians, quote, rewards, Romans, sermon, struggles, trials, video, William Penn, YouTube. 2 Comments »

Leading Prudently

February 1, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

Isaiah 52–53 contain a description of Jesus as a servant leader. One phrase describes Him like this: “See, My Servant will act wisely” (Isaiah 52:13).

That phrase “act wisely” is translated in some other translations of the Bible as “deal prudently.” I like that word prudently. It’s not a word that we use very often today, but it’s one that sets God’s servant leaders apart from worldly leaders.

Prudent can be described as…

circumspect
intelligently speaking and acting
teaching skillfully
having increasing understanding and insight
helping others grow in understanding
behaving appropriately
living wisely
guiding oneself and others willingly

What happens to the leader who lives and leads this way? Listen to the entire verse that I only quoted a portion of earlier—

See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

Notice that this exalted person is described as a servant—not just anyone’s servant, but Jehovah’s servant. As a servant of God, Jesus becomes a servant of all. And as a servant of God, He is exalted and honored above all.

Jesus is every leader’s Ultimate Example of this. Jesus set aside every prerogative He had that would give Him the right to do things His way, in order to make Himself a servant of God and a servant of mankind (Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 10:45). Jesus gave all of His followers this example to emulate (John 13:15-17), so Paul tells us our “mindset should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

I need to ask myself a question—and I would invite you to ask yourself this too: As a leader, am I growing in Christlike prudence?

A mark of a godly leader is one who can see his growth in prudence.

Jesus, may You be pleased as I follow Your example of living and leading prudently. Holy Spirit, help me see the areas in my life where I need to submit to You. Father, may You be pleased to bless my leadership as it aligns with Your heart. I want to act wisely, lead prudently, and help others to follow this example of Jesus for themselves.

This is part 61 in my series on godly leadership. You can check out all of my posts in this series by clicking here.

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Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Gospel of John, Gospel of Mark, Isaiah, Jesus Christ, leadership, Philippians, prudence, servant-leadership, shepherd leadership. Leave a Comment »

The Human Jesus

January 31, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

We saw that our beautiful Jesus became grotesque—taking our ugly sin on Himself so that He could clothe us with His perfectly righteous robe. In so doing, He became even more resplendent. His friend John saw Him in such radiant beauty that he crumbled to his knees at the sight of His majesty (Revelation 1:12-16)!

Just like John and others in the Bible, when we see ourselves in contrast to His awesome beauty, we often feel shabby and unworthy to be in His presence. Job expressed his desire to somehow get away from this Perfection (Job 7:11-21). Ultimately, in his desperation, Job utters something prophetic—

God is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer Him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of Him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot. (Job 9:32-35)

When we are confronted with the perfection of God, we all want “someone to arbitrate”—someone who will fairly represent both sides. We need someone both God and man. Since man cannot become God, only God can become man. Isaiah prophesied it this way, “God saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm achieved salvation for Him” (Isaiah 59:16).

This Arbitrator or Mediator is Jesus the Christ!

Jesus means “help from Jehovah.” This is His human name given to Him at His birth (Luke 1:31; Matthew 1:21, 25; Luke 2:21).

Christ or Messiah means “anointed by God” and is His divine title. Often His title is used with the definite article “the” to signify that Jesus is the One and Only Messiah (Luke 2:26-27; John 1:41; Matthew 16:16; Acts 10:38).

William Barclay commented on this: “Peter states [that Jesus was a human descendent of David] in the first recorded sermon of the Christian Church (Acts 2:29-36). Paul speaks of Jesus Christ descended from David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3). The writer of the Pastoral Epistles urges men to remember that Jesus Christ, descended from David, was raised from the dead (2 Timothy 2:8). The writer of the Revelation hears the Risen Christ say: ‘I am the root and the offspring of David’ (Revelation 22:16).”

Many times this human name and divine title are linked together. In Hebrews, the name Jesus is used more times than any other title (19x), and Christ is the second-most used title (15x).

(For my Patreon supporters, I’ve shared a list of all of the titles for Jesus used in the book of Hebrews.)

Hebrews makes it perfectly clear how important it is that Jesus was made fully human just like us. We read phrases like…

“made a little lower than the angels,” which was David’s way of talking about humans (see Psalm 8:4-6)
“made perfect through suffering”—only humans can suffer
“flesh and blood”
“made like His brothers in every way”
“His life on earth”

Remember that I said the most-used titles in Hebrews were Jesus and Christ. The third-most used title in Hebrews is high priest (14x). Only the Human Jesus and the Divine Jesus could be the perfect High Priest and Mediator that Job longed for, and that you and I have to have!

This post is a part of a bigger series on prayer with the subtitle: “Learning to pray in the awesome name of Jesus.” So what does it mean that we can pray in the human name of Jesus?

It means we don’t have to pray majestic prayers in order for God to take notice. We can pray very human prayers, we can groan with real human pain, we can growl with real human anger. Our totally human Jesus understands us, and the totally divine Christ runs to help us!

Don’t try to sanitize your prayers to make them sound acceptable. Jesus didn’t! How awesome it is to have a High Priest who is both fully human and fully divine!

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series on prayer, you can find a link to all of them by clicking here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Book of Acts, Calvary Assembly of God, Gospel of John, Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Matthew, Hebrews, High Priest, Jesus Christ, job, prayer, Psalm, Revelation, sermon. 6 Comments »

11 Quotes From “Out Of The Depths”

January 26, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

John Newton’s autobiography Out Of The Depths contains a very interesting closing chapter. They are not the words written by John Newton, but the words spoken by him to his friends and parishioners. Here are a few that especially caught my attention. You can check out my full book review of Out Of The Depths by clicking here.

“If two angels were sent from heaven to execute a divine command, one to conduct an empire and the other to sweep a street in it, they would feel no inclination to change employments.”

“A Christian should never plead spirituality for being a sloven. If he be but a shoe cleaner, he should be the best in the parish.”

The remaining nine quotes are exclusive content for my Patreon supporters. In addition to book quotes, there are videos and behind-the-scenes views that only these supporters have access to. I would love it if you would prayerfully consider supporting my ministry for just $5 per month.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: adoption, Christianity, evil, Jesus Christ, John Bunyan, John Newton, pastoring, preaching, quotes, temperance, work ethic. Leave a Comment »

The Beautiful Jesus

January 24, 2022 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

I think we all know the cliche, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” But isn’t that too shallow? Are we really saying that beauty is only what we can see on the surface? Instead, I think we should say, “True beauty is in the heart of the beholder.”

Where does beauty begin? What is its source?

Jesus told us, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I can only love others to the level that I love myself, and that also means that I can only see beauty in others as I see it in myself. But if I try to achieve this by just loving myself or telling myself how beautiful I am, my pride comes in and crumbles the whole foundation.

So the first thing Jesus told us was to go to the Source—to Love Himself: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30-31). When we come to our Heavenly Father through our beautiful Savior we discover how beautiful we are in Him. We are clothed in the righteous robes of Jesus, which makes us as beautiful as He is. Then our Father sings His love to us (see Song of Songs 2:10, 4:7).

The dictionary defines beauty this way: “The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind.” But the word beauty originated from a Latin word that meant good or virtuous. Sadly, our vain world has made beauty something that is only skin deep, and very rarely is someone’s goodness or virtue described as beautiful.

Let me say it again: “True beauty is in the heart of the beholder.” Peter and Jesus both make this same point, reminding us that something beautiful on the outside can actually be covering up something quite ugly on the inside, or to say it another way: true beauty is far deeper than merely what we see with our eyes (1 Peter 3:3-4; Matthew 23:27).

On the other hand, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus that, “there was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him” (Isaiah 53:2 NLT). Outwardly, especially at His crucifixion, Jesus was grotesque, but this ugliness was our ugliness—our sin, and our disease, and our pride that Jesus took on Himself. He willingly took on our ugliness to allow us to exchange ashes for beauty, mourning for rejoicing, and sin for righteousness (Isaiah 53:2-5; 61:1-2, 9-10).

So in prayer, we go to the One who isn’t beautiful in the eyes of a vain world. Jesus made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, He came not to be served but to serve, He washed dirty feet, He hung out with sinners, He didn’t stay at the Ritz (He didn’t even have a home of His own), and He had only one set of clothes to wear. But He willingly took on all of our pain and sin so that He could take away our ugly robes and clothe us in His beautifully perfect robe of righteousness.

It’s only when I know how beautiful and loved I am in God’s sight that I can begin to love others and see the beauty in them.

Looking at True Beauty is the only way I can see myself correctly. Looking at True Beauty I can see the intrinsic worth and beauty in others.

Prayer takes me to the beautiful Savior. Prayer reveals Christ’s beauty in me. Prayer brings His beauty to a vain world.

“Without prayer the Christian life, robbed of its sweetness and its beauty, becomes cold and formal and dead; but rooted in the secret place where God meets and walks and talks with His own, it grows into such a testimony of divine power that all men will feel its influence and be touched by the warmth of its love.” —E.M. Bounds

I pray that we will know this truth—that true beauty is in the heart of the beholder—and that we will truly know that Real Beauty is only found when we gaze at our beautiful Savior.

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If you’ve missed any of the messages in our series on prayer called Awesome: Learning to pray in the awesome name of Jesus, you can find all of the messages by clicking here.