Matthew 5:24 "Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way;
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
You might be asking, "No time for makeup, uh, have you seen me without my makeup? Many of you, no, I have not. Others, I may have. Trust me, this is not to beat women down who wear makeup. I enjoy my concealer and highlighter as much as anyone, probably more! I want us to go much deeper than the superficial side of makeup. In fact, we will be exploring the noun form as well as the verb form, i.e., makeup and make up.
Think about the times in your life when you have LITERALLY had no time for makeup. In this sense and spelling, I'm referring to cosmetics in general. Think deeply on this…I'm not talking about the times you could have taken time to apply makeup but simply chose not to. I'm talking about those sudden jolts in our life: that dreaded phone call or that forceful knock upon our door when literally our call to action meant there was NO TIME FOR MAKEUP. You simply had to grab your purse and keys and go. There was no time to run to a mirror and check your looks. At those times in my life I have usually ended up finding myself face down in prayer to the point I feel an overwhelming desire to call upon that close friend or those persons whom I knew would go to prayer battle for my need, those persons I knew I could count on. Not only was there no time for makeup, it was the last thing on my mind. Suddenly, that superficial side of me no longer seemed important. I needed to call on those people whom I could trust to lift up my needs to God. I may have even wanted or needed them to come to my side, makeup or not.
The same term, "No Time For Makeup," can apply not only to our face, but also to our relationships. Only we need to change the term to "MAKE UP." Ahhh, what a difference a space makes. Now that same little word which sounds the same (the grammatical term is a homophone, same pronunciation, different meaning, different spelling) now takes on a different meaning. There are many definitions, but I want to focus in on one: To reconcile. It is now a verb…verbs require action.
It grieves my heart to see the competitiveness and deceptiveness between women these days. We live in a society where one of the most popular book lines among teenage girls is entitled, "The Clique." Some folks are allowing their daughters to watch movies entitled, "Mean Girls." I'll allow your imagination to focus on those titles and draw your own conclusions of their substance. I promise, this is one instance assumption will not steer you wrong. The truth is, this is not just Hollywood. This is what girls and women are living with everyday in our schools, workplaces, and homes (yes, sister against sister) It's sad isn't it? Even sadder, it's in our places of worship…that's right our churches. Women tearing women down. If I have caused grief to a friend in Christ, how in the world am I going to call upon that person to enter her prayer closet for me. Remember, I had no time for makeup! The matter is urgent! There is also no time for make up. If I need you, I certainly do not want to have to call you in my moment of darkness and hash out our grievances in order to reconcile.
Ladies, as Godly women we are called to show ourselves friendly. I do not expect you to develop deep, personal relationships with every woman you come in contact with; this is simply not possible. It is, however, not only possible, but it is our commandment from God to be respectful of other women, to be God-fearing, and to love everyone, not everything about them. He commands us not to hold grudges, to dissolve bitterness, and to set examples for those younger. Are we doing this ladies? If we as Christians conduct ourselves in this manner, then please tell me who in this world can we count on and trust?? If Godly women cannot expect one another to lend encouragement, friendship, and hospitality, we have reduced ourselves to act like those who are godless. We should be building one another up, not tearing one another down. Our lives are complicated enough. No matter what socioeconomic background we come from, we all have common issues. We are, after all, women, made by God himself. Ladies, there is a world full of dying people who do not know Jesus as their Savior. We do not have time to "make up" with one another. We need to be working together in edification of one another in order to win these lost souls. If the godless see us tearing one another down, bickering, and belittling one another, why in the world would they want to be part of this???? There is literally no time for make up with one another. There is time, however, to wake up and live the life God intended.
Most importantly, there is no time for spiritual makeup or make up. If all we ever do in our spiritual walk is put on our "spiritual makeup", take 2 steps forward and 3 steps backwards, where are we going? I think you can do the math on that. How superficial we tend to be at times. Ladies we need to render our hearts and minds to the Lord in prayer and service. Does that mean you will never slip, fail, or veer off course. Of course not, we are, after all, human. We can make a difference though. What if we were to take 50 steps forward, and only 5 steps backwards. Do the math on that…get the picture. Better yet, get the mindset, be ever mindful of your words and actions, they are, after all, a reflection of your heart! We will never be perfect, but there is no time for constantly having to make up with God. Yes, he is just to forgive us, and we are most definitely supposed to confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and repent. Ahhh, that 6 letter word is where so many of us get a little side ways. We are supposed to confess and ask for forgiveness, but we are also supposed to repent. Repent means to "turn away." If we never turn away, we constantly spend our life like a truck stuck in mud spinning our wheels. Someone comes along and pulls us out, in our spiritual walk that someone being Jesus, and then we simply drive ourselves back into the mud again, only to be pulled out again, and again. If we spend our life in make up with God, we will never shake up or wake up anyone for Jesus.
Ladies, it doesn't matter how much makeup you apply to your face or your spiritual walk, God sees the true you….he knows your heart. We should not be wasting so much time in make up where God is concerned. We cannot continue spending our life in such superficial worship. If you are sincere about your relationship with Jesus and reaching a lost world, you will be of a mindset to take off your spiritual makeup and put a halt to all this make up that is going on.
Now, don't go saying that this woman wrote a devotion telling me I needed to stop wearing makeup. If that is what you are thinking, then right now you need to go to the very top and distinguish the 2 forms of this word, and then re-read the entire devotion. Makeup and make up are very different. As stated above, I love my beauty treatments. Makeup as in cosmetics is not a sin in and of itself, but it is sin when our lives become filled with all things superficial.
I guess you could say ladies, this is where the rubber meets the road, literally, we need to get of out our mud pits, mud slinging, and spiritual mud masks, and get to work for the Lord. There is a lost and dying world waiting on us. If I'm busy hiding behind my spiritual makeup and making up with you and the Lord my entire life, that dear lost soul I could have impacted may never "make up" with God.
I use these apple dumplings quite often from Pepperidge Farm. They are convenient and quick to prepare. 
Fresh-ground, fresh-brewed coffee. Would you care for cream or sugar??
I simply brush the dumplings with egg whites and add sugar to give them the semi-homemade touch :-)
The serving platter and mugs were purchased at Home Goods last year on the clearance aisle. The bottom markings say, "Raymond Waites, Savannah, Certified International Corporation." I was able to get the serving platter, a large serving bowl, and 6 mugs.
A soft glowing candle adds to the ambiance of the evening.
The design on the dishes make them especially perfect for this time of year.
Warm, gooey center, sweet, crispy crusty....YUMMY!
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