You Are A Fearfully And Wonderfully Made Woman, Even With Acne

You wake up early. As you approach the mirror, you hope no new breakouts have surfaced.

But as you study your reflection, the familiar disappointment sets in. Despite your consistent skincare routine, your mirror shows problematic skin.

You’re exhausted from believing product promises and glowing testimonials. It seems like everyone has normal skin except you.

Still, you push forward. You wash your face and apply each skincare product.

Next, you turn to your makeup.

Frustration wells up, but you press on. Convinced that if you get your blending right, your makeup will not highlight your texture.

Then, all of a sudden, you feel it—a breakout has betrayed you, bleeding through the makeup you so painstakingly applied.

You want to cry. But there’s no time for that. You have to get to work, and you didn’t wake up so early just to give up now.

With a steady hand, you wipe away the blood, the tissue trembling slightly between your fingers. You reapply your makeup around the area.

It’s not about looking gorgeous—you’re painfully aware of that. Your daily routine is a battle to blend in, to avoid the stares and whispers that come with having acne in a world that notices imperfections far too easily.

You do this every day, not to stand out, but to survive. To pass through the day without being picked on or judged for something you wish you could control.

You ask God, “How am I a fearfully and wonderfully made woman? It feels like what You say about me in Your word is not true at all.”

Each breakout feels like a betrayal, not just by your skin, but by the very word you clung to in Psalm 139—that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Table of Contents

What Does It Mean to be Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by God?

“Am I still a fearfully and wonderfully made even with acne?”

It can be disheartening when God’s Word seems at odds with our daily reality. Most likely, however, it is our understanding of being fearfully and wonderfully made that needs correction.

Psalm 139:14 comes after David’s sublime expression of the attributes of God, namely His omniscience (Psalm 139:1-6) and omnipresence (Psalm 139: 7-12). Psalm 139 is a theology in poetry.

As we look at each section of Psalm 139, I encourage you to read the verses aloud.

¹Yahweh, you have searched me,
    and you know me.
²You know my sitting down and my rising up.
    You perceive my thoughts from afar.
³You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴For there is not a word on my tongue,
    but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
⁵You hem me in behind and before.
    You laid your hand on me.
⁶This knowledge is beyond me.
    It’s lofty.
    I can’t attain it.

Psalm 139, WEB (emphasis added)

Yahweh (the personal name of God) is omniscient— He has complete knowledge. The all-knowing God is not indifferent. David emphasizes that God knows him on a deeply personal and intimate level.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. His knowledge of us encompasses even those parts that we struggle to put into words or fully understand.

⁷Where could I go from your Spirit?
    Or where could I flee from your presence?
⁸If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.
    If I make my bed in Sheol,^[a] behold, you are there!
⁹If I take the wings of the dawn,
    and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰even there your hand will lead me,
    and your right hand will hold me.
¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me.
    The light around me will be night,”
¹²even the darkness doesn’t hide from you,
    but the night shines as the day.
    The darkness is like light to you.

Psalm 139, WEB (emphasis added)

David proclaims God’s omnipresence—God is constantly present everywhere. There is no place in the universe where His guidance and protection can fail, as even darkness cannot stop God from seeing and leading David.

Because God’s presence is inescapable, His concern and care for us are inescapable too.

¹³ For you formed my inmost being.
    You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I will give thanks to you,
    for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful.
    My soul knows that very well.
¹⁵My frame wasn’t hidden from you,
    when I was made in secret,
    woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶Your eyes saw my body.
    In your book they were all written,
    the days that were ordained for me,
    when as yet there were none of them.

Psalm 139, WEB (emphasis added)

David shows how God’s omniscience and omnipresence were at work in his conception.

I like to think of it this way: Every human being is God’s idea. We were first conceived in God’s mind. Even before time began, in the eternal past, God desired and delighted to bring us into physical existence (Ps. 139:16).

God wove and embroidered the details and intricacies of our personality and physique—fearfully and wonderfully.

So, what does it mean when the Bible says “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”? God made every person with careful attention, intentional design, and a specific purpose in mind. Your creation is not random but crafted by the all-knowing and ever-present God. Your physical traits, personality, natural tendencies, and abilities are all crafted according to His creative plan and loving intention for you.

Even in a fallen world where physical flaws and birth defects are part of our reality, we are still fearfully and wonderfully made. This is because the Creator of the universe formed us in His own image—the image of God.

Our dignity and worth do not diminish even when our appearance does not look pleasing to human eyes (1 Sam. 16:7).

Therefore, it’s not meeting society’s standards of beauty that qualifies you to call yourself fearfully and wonderfully made in His image.

What qualifies you is this: You are an image-bearer, designed by God Himself.

What is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made in Hebrew?

Understanding the Hebrew words for fearfully and wonderfully can enhance our understanding of what it means to be an image-bearer.

The Bible’s Old Testament, including the Psalms, was originally written in Hebrew. Hebrew is a rich and complex language. English translations often cannot fully capture the original meaning and nuance of Hebrew words.

By examining the Hebrew words, we can appreciate the full depth of what David, the sweet psalmist of Israel (2 Sam. 23:1-4, intended to convey.

Yare’ (יָרֵא) is translated as fearfully and carries a sense of awe, reverence, or respect. Our society has become so fixated on external aesthetics that we have collectively overlooked the true wonder and complexity of human anatomy in its form and function. Even our own DNA is another unfathomable universe in itself.

Palah (פָּלָה) is translated as “wonderfully” and means to be set apart and to be marvelous. Let this sink in: God has set you apart—your unique design was meant to accomplish the good works He has appointed you to do even before you were born (Eph. 2:10).

Fearfully and wonderfully made in Hebrew language evokes the sense that, individually, we are God’s masterpiece—not repeatable nor replaceable in human history. This is breathtaking. This is awe-inspiring. That God created each of us with great worth and dignity: Each one of us is God’s creative marvel.

If we only embraced the truth that this is how God created us, we would worship God as David did:

Your works are wonderful.
My soul knows that very well.

David’s soul swells with adoration to God as he sings of God’s omnipotence. God’s works are wonderful for they are all done with great skill and power.

David’s soul is humbled because God’s divine artistry is unparalleled, unmatched.

Perhaps, the main issue does not lie in how we want to be seen by others. The main issue is how we perceive God and His works.

The issue is we lack the awe that David had for God.

A distorted self-image arises from a distorted view of God.

Our perceived flaws tempt us to have a bitter, grumbling, ungrateful heart posture toward God. A heart posture that has little resemblance of David’s.

As image-bearers, if we hold a low view of God, we risk devoting ourselves to mirroring the image of society’s beauty ideals rather than reflecting the image of God within us.

We risk losing sight of the unchanging truth that each of us is a unique masterpiece, deserving of awe and respect.

Instead, we harshly scrutinize ourselves. This is precisely what Satan, the father of lies, seeks to do. He distorts the truth about who God is and who we are in God’s eyes, tempting us to believe the primordial lie that deceived Eve: God intentionally withholds good things from us.

What Does Psalm 139 Teach us about Living with Acne?

¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is their sum!
¹⁸If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.

Psalm 139, WEB (emphasis added)

David praises God because the same omniscience and omnipresence that were at work in his conception have continued all the days of his life.

The Hebrew word for precious is yaqar (יָקָר). In his exposition on Psalm 139, Alexander MacLaren explains, “The root meaning of the word rendered ‘precious’ is weighty. The singer would weigh God’s thoughts towards him, and finds that they weigh down his scales.”

God does not merely have warm, fuzzy thoughts about you. His precious thoughts about you—more numerous than all the grains of sand on the earth’s shore—passionately move Him to work in your life in ways that may not always be apparent.

Even if you don’t always see it, His love, care, protection, guidance, comfort, provision, and plans for you are at work every moment. He sustains you with His very breath.

This is a crucial truth to hold on to, beloved. Because the way we view God shapes how we understand and process the human experience with physical flaws—and all other flaws in our earthly existence.

Although I was raised as a Roman Catholic in the Philippines (my home country), I lacked a biblical understanding of who God is.

So when I began breaking out at 15 years old, I didn’t know how to reconcile the existence of God with my acne struggles. I didn’t know God well enough to believe that He had precious thoughts about me.

Instead, I believed these things:

I believed God was so distant and too busy to even notice me.
I thought God didn’t care about my acne because He had more serious and urgent matters to attend to.
I believed God was displeased with me for being so troubled by my breakouts, especially since my life was still easier than many others.

Guess what? None of them were true. Instead, God looked at me with grace and mercy.

When I secluded myself in my dark room—avoiding people because I didn’t want them to see my acne—God was right there with me, taking care of me.

In those moments when I was clueless and lost, God was working. He was working to rescue me from the kingdom of darkness and bring me into the kingdom of His Son, Jesus Christ (Col. 1:13).

In God’s hands, acne became a tool to lead me to repentance and faith in the gospel. Before I believed that clear skin was the salvation I needed. But God showed me through the Scriptures that true salvation is found only in Jesus.

When I believed in Jesus, I didn’t have any miraculous healing. My acne has persisted, but the ongoing struggle made me hold on dearly to the crux of Christianity—the resurrection.

How precious are God’s thoughts! That He would use my blemishes to draw me to the greater beauty of Christ—only an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God could orchestrate something as wonderful as this!

Therefore, Psalm 139 teaches us that living with acne, as well as enduring any kind of suffering, is this—falling asleep, exhausted from the heaviness and groaning of your heart, and waking up to find that, though troubles have not been resolved and uncertainties have not ceased, you find God has not abandoned nor forsaken you. When you wake up, God is still with you.

What Does Psalm 139 Teach us about Coping with Acne?

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
²⁴And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139, NKJV (emphasis added)

David prays that God examine him. David is not afraid of God’s omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence; rather, these divine attributes bring him comfort and joy.

For if God sees his anxieties and wickedness with perfect clarity, that means only God can truly understand and address them.

David recognizes that human insight is limited and fallible, but God’s judgment is true. By inviting God to search his heart, David expresses his deep trust in God’s ability to heal, correct, and guide him.

David knows that God’s examination is not for condemnation but for restoration.

And as you and I have experienced, struggling with acne brings many anxieties—both real and imagined.

Psalm 139:23-24 shows us a framework for coping with acne.

1. Invite God into Your Struggles

Begin by inviting God into your experience with acne. Ask Him to search your heart and reveal any underlying anxieties or emotions that may be connected to your struggle. Acknowledge your feelings of frustration, insecurity, or self-consciousness, and bring them before God in prayer.

2. Confess Your Anxieties

Be honest with God about the anxieties that acne gives you. Whether it’s fear of judgment, concern about your appearance, or frustration with the ongoing battle, lay these anxieties at His feet. Trust that God understands your worries and wants to help you find peace.

3. Seek God’s Guidance and Correction

Allow God to reveal any unhealthy attitudes or behaviors that may arise from your struggle with acne. This could include bitterness, envy, jealousy, and unforgiveness. Ask Him to cleanse your heart of any thoughts or actions that do not align with His will, and to help you develop a Christ-like perspective on your condition.

4. Follow God’s Leading in Your Healing Journey

Seek God’s guidance on coping with acne in a way that honors Him. This could involve adopting a biblical perspective on appearance, a biblical understanding of physical healing, and finding ways to build confidence rooted in your identity in Christ.

5. Embrace Spiritual Growth Through the Struggle

Consider how your experience with acne can be a tool for spiritual growth. Use this time to deepen your relationship with God, develop patience, and learn to find your worth in Him rather than in outward appearance. Let your struggle become a means of drawing closer to God and strengthening your faith.