I bet your looking through your closest trying to find what to wear for New Years. A fancy dress for a fancy outing? Maybe your the jogging pants and over size t-shirt type? Are you the pajama person, because your going to sleep through New Years? No mater the person, your thinking of what you will wear. Have you giving any thought of what you may wear in your spiritual walk into the New Years?
Many of us know that we should wear the full body of amour of Christ found in Ephesians 6:10-18 :
(“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people”)
Did you know there are other verses that talks about what we should wear? I’m not talking physically ( that’s a different story) but God wants us dressed in our finest for him as well. In Proverbs3:1-10 and Proverbs 3: 22-26. I call theses the “accessories” of our clothing. When you get dressed (mainly for women) we tend to add special things like: necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. but it’s the same way if you think about it in our walk with Christ.
We get dressed in our amour, because we must always be ready to fight, but just like a solider in war- we wear things to identify us in battle- Our necklaces. Before you go and think I’ve lost my mind listen. In proverbs 3:3 “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” Bind them around your neck- so in other words fasten your necklaces. It says it again in Proverbs 3:22 “22 they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.” Or like a name tag on your necklaces.
In Colossians 3:12 it tells us to “Clothe yourselves with compassion, humility kindness, gentleness, patiences.” Why would we need to do this? Well each word is something we should show in our walk with Christ. If you think about it God shows us each one of these words. Why wouldn’t we also need to show these? Think of each of these as an item would would wear. Maybe compassion would be rings because you can show compassion with your hands. Patiences may be your earrings, because listing to someone else takes patiences at times. Maybe humility is perfume. You may spray it upon yourself, but is it there? Yes it smells delightful as you pass others. Just as we should show humility to others. Maybe kindness is your lip gloss. Why? Because with a simple smile you can show someone you care and it can show kindness towards them . It doesn’t have to be shiny it can be clear, but it will show kindness wherever you go. And gentleness, it’s not often thought about, but it could be like our lotion. We apply lotion to keep our hands soft and gentle to the touch, but spiritual lotion would keep our heart and minds gentle and free of negative thoughts. It seems like a lot to do to get dressed, but we do it in really life why couldn’t we apply it to our spiritual walk as well?
As we all walk into this new year of 2016, we will be faced with many things that will be tough to face, but if we are dressed in the right spiritual clothing and we can face anything Satan throws at us. Maybe you need to dig your amour out of the closet, or repair some of it in prayer. What ever you need to do, make sure you are dressed and be prepared this year. Because what you wear matters, you wouldn’t fight a war in heels, would you?
Happy New Years!
-Marli
Just Being Marli 