Has there been a time in your life when you felt unattractive or unloved? Most of us feel it at some stage, usually as age starts to creep up on us.

It makes us examine ourselves and we look for a way to do something about it. Maybe we alter our image with a new hairstyle or some new clothes, jewellry or perfume. For a lot of people that seems to be the solution.

The fashion designers waste no time in telling us that what we need - is what they are selling. TV commercials show us that all we need do to be a changed person is to have that new hairstyle or wear that new perfume. And millions of people spend countless hours (and often pounds) striving for a look which will make them feel better. We are encouraged to find perfection and a sense of eternal youth. For others, it is not enough. The clothes help, the hairstyle helps but ... there must be more.

Some people have such a desire to change how they feel that they are even prepared to change how they look! In the last decade cosmetic surgery has become almost as commonplace as medical surgery. Many film and pop stars have undergone surgery to alter their physical appearance.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wearing nice clothes or having a nice hairstyle.
Neither is there much wrong with smelling nice or having attractive jewellry and in certain instances, where there has been disfigurement for instance, cosmetic surgeons have proved a real help to those that have perhaps suffered taunts and mocking from less kind people.

But have we got things just a little out of perspective?
If someone owned a motor car which they cherished would they wash and polish the outside each week and not look under the bonnet to check that the engine was working correctly?

Such a car would soon lose it's value. (Even though it shined beautifully)
Would there be any point in hanging new wallpaper over a wall known to be full of damp? The damp would eventually work it's way through and spoil the paper.

The Bible shows what Jesus said concerning religious people that wore flowing garments as they stood on street corners to pray. They tried to look holy, righteous and better than 'ordinary' folk. They only changed their appearance.

But Jesus said they were like "Whited sepulchres (tombs), which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." Matt 23 v27.

Strong words. But what was Jesus saying?
Those religious leaders were only interested in how others saw them, not in what they were actually like inside. And Jesus told them so!

So there are different reasons for wanting to alter our appearance. Maybe we feel we are not as beautiful as others or because we want to cover up our natural character or perhaps to disguise some hurt inside. Either way...we fail. We fail because the real us, the person on the inside will always work himself outward. Just like the damp wall our appearance will be marred as the natural character in us finds it's way to the surface.

We fail because like the motor car, if the life within is neglected then no matter how shiny we are on the outside we will soon be seen for what we really are. It sounds then as if there is no hope. No way of altering what we are or how we feel, by what we can do.

People often say of others "He won't change. A leopard can't change his spots." How true. We simply cannot change how we are. But God can!
Jesus taught His disciples that it was the inside of man that needed to be changed. He taught that it is the sin inside us that makes us ugly not our outward appearance. And He made it clear that He loves us no matter how we look and He came to make that change in our lives!

But sin, our own selfishness, our own self will, prevents us from receiving all that God has for us. We need to be cleansed from that sin and Jesus came to meet that need. He is without sin. Perfect without and within! He loves us and wants us to know a cleansing that will change us on the inside!

Through faith in Him we can find forgiveness, we can find peace and above all we can find more than eternal youth .... we can know eternal life! "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" - John 3 v16