Saturday, September 23, 2017

Getting Dressed (Part 2)

In last week's post, I shared the importance of clothing ourselves in our spiritual clothing each and every morning. If we forget to clothe ourselves in our spiritual clothing it won't matter what physical clothing we wear for the day, satan will have a hay day with us when we walk out half dressed spiritually. If you have not read last week's post, please be sure to read Getting Dressed (Part 1) before reading today's post.

Put on the new self

“and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:24

“and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Colossians 3:10


The new self-does not wallow like a pig in the mud, muck, and mire of the past. The new self-walks in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ who so willingly laid down His life for us. We are a sanctified being! We must learn to walk away from the past and towards Jesus Christ. For some of us, this needs to be a daily laying down of the past and picking up the forgiveness of Christ because the past can have a drawing effect on us at times. When we learn to take off the old self and put on the new, then we can have freedom and liberty in Jesus Christ!



Put on love

“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14

How often do we forget that God loves us so much that He gave His one and only son? (John 3:16) He loves you that much, He loves me that much, He loves each one of us that much that He was willing to go to hell and back without hesitation. Love that drastic can be a hard thing to accept and understand at times. But that is the type of love that we are called to put on in the morning when we crawl out of bed, a love that is so enamored with us that it would die for us! Yes, a love that is so enthralled that it would leave heaven and walk through hell for you, for me, and for all of us! Mind-blowing isn’t it? Now, that's the kind of love I am proud to clothe myself in each morning.  


Put on righteousness

I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.” Job 29:14

“May your priests be clothed with your righteousness; may your faithful people sing for joy.”Psalm 132:9

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Isaiah 61:10

Yes, righteousness is a choice. I believe it is a heart choice we must choose each and every day. I love the way these scriptures describe righteousness as a robe and a turban, that we must clothe ourselves in. We must physically put it on. We must physically take steps toward righteousness. Clothing just doesn’t appear on our bodies without us making a conscious effort to make it happen. Righteousness does not appear in our lives without some conscious effort and works on our behalf.


Put on strength

“Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.” Isaiah 52:1
The Lord does not desire weakness, but the strength to be our portion. He desires us to be strong. Yet again this is another garment that takes a conscious effort to put on. I don't know about you, but there are some days I wake up in the morning and simply wish I had stayed in bed because I feel too weak to face my day. God's word tells us that we don't have to face our day in weakness. It says to clothe yourself in strength. How on earth do we do this when we are facing the impossible? Paul himself said, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:11b. Let the Lord take the reigns of your weakness because it is through our weaknesses that His strength can be revealed.

Put on dignity

“She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come” Proverbs 31:25

The word dignity means "bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation." (dictionary.com) In other words, we are to conduct ourselves in such a way that shows respect for ourselves and the people and situations we are involved with. What would it look like if we clothed ourselves in a way that we would show respect to everyone around us in all situations? This can be a challenge at times, especially in moments of conflict. Challenge yourself to put on dignity every day.

Put on honor

“Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.”
Job 40:10

Honor is very similar to the word dignity. Honer in this passage is not talking about other people honoring us, it is talking about us putting on respect for others. When you look up the word honor on dictionary.com the very first definition that comes up is "honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions." (dictionary.com) We are to clothe ourselves with honesty, fairness, and integrity.

Lord, help us each day to clothe ourselves in our spiritual clothing. Help us to be covered from head to toe in the character traits of Christ Jesus so that we can combat the attacks of the enemy and advance your kingdom all by the manner in which we get dressed. Thank you for giving us your word as our spiritual wardrobe. Don't allow us to pick and choose like we would clothing out of our natural closets, but to put on the all of our spiritual clothing. We ask these things in the precious name of Jesus Christ. 

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