Are you presenting yourSELF first, or the LORD first?

Are you presenting yourSELF first, or the LORD first?

Isaiah 52:2:

“There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.”

What we think makes us worthy is not worth the same value to the Lord. What do you hope gets presented? The best version (appearance or performance) of yourself to others?

There was NOTHING beautiful about Jesus’ appearance. There wasn’t one thing to attract us, in our humanity, to Him.

And yet, some show up with their performance, outward appearance or accolades like He doesn’t already see the heart (1 Samuel 16:7: People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart).

Galatians 1:10: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

There’s nothing wrong with looking nice, having some things, being gifted, but it’s the presentation of what comes first. Are you willing to present the authenticity of what He’s doing in you first, or are you presenting a pretty package that never reveals what’s truly happening on the inside? Can you never break, never share, never show up less than or exactly where you’re at without hiding?

We were never called or asked to present ourSELVES first, but rather in humility, Him.

2 Timothy 2:15:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

We present ourselves to GOD, not people. We are approved by our deeds and how we handle the truth. Not how we perform, not our job, not how well we speak or what we have.

There’s a reason God chose the messy ones to do His work. The cheaters, the adulterers, the liars, the prostitutes, the ill equipped, poorly educated and sometimes, the ugly.

If we are stripped back with nothing to give but ourselves— no nice clothes, no stuff, no makeup, nothing to offer but our hearts, we’re exactly where He wants us.

Don’t be afraid to be ugly before Him. Don’t be afraid of people misunderstanding or judging you for bringing your true heart and offering to Him.

Some misunderstood Him for His appearance. Rejected and denied Him. Yet He stayed focused on the work, and remaining faithful to His father—

Isaiah 52:3-7:

“He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

He was despised and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God‘s path to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly yet he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.”

So I’ll ask again, who are we presenting first? OurSELVES or the Lord?