I had the craziest dream early this morning just before waking up. It was about various people I’ve known in my lifetime that have been in rocky relationships. They were arguing with their partner and then getting in the driver seat of their cars and driving in reverse! Some would stop, think a moment, change gears to go forward, stop again, think and go in reverse again.
When I woke up with the dream fresh on my mind, it made me laugh. “What a funny dream!”, I thought. But when I continued to think about it I realized that I was in a place like that after my husband died three years ago. I wanted to go forward but I didn’t want to leave the past behind. I didn’t want the future to be different. I ‘wanted’ things to be the same! It made for some crazy maneuvering as I turned my wheels and changed gears a number of times along the way (in the beginning of the journey).
What I realized eventually, and was reminded of this morning when I gave deeper thought about the funny scene I was viewing in my dream, is that people get stuck in life because of our wants. We’re so driven in life by our own wants that we try to hold onto things that are withering away in our hands. Life goes forward. Life is full of changes, constant changes. We are so afraid to change or bitter when change becomes no choice of our own and we don’t WANT the change.
This spinning of desires can put us in depression. It can put blinders on our eyes that prevent us from seeing the joys that can come down the road in the days ahead. And because we have to walk the path of life under dark clouds at time, or even in the dead of night with only a quarter moon for light, we get scared of the future, nervous of change, people with no vision and turn back (or try to) or get stuck in bitterness because we just don’t want to go forward.
The Bible tells us that without vision the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18) The “vision” here relates to knowing the Word of God (Scriptures). The Word of God gives us promises and hope for the vision we have for the days ahead. And it hit me today like never before… the verse says without vision the PEOPLE perish. It doesn’t say, without vision government leaders parish or CEO’s perish. It says people, as in ALL people. We must look forward, peek with interest and hope into the future, walk forward to grow, to change and mature, and to find joy. Certainly there is no joy in living in a place that doesn’t exist anymore. There is no peace when we continuously put our own desires ahead of all else. Our own desires are fleeting and continously changing; chasing desires can spin us into a whirl wind or drop the transmission right out from under us!
While our days on earth hold days of sadness and darkness, there is a bright future for the Brides of the King, futures that contain days of joy and delight as we welcome each new day presented to us by our Husband, the King of Kings.
This site was created to remind us, and reflect on who we are to Jesus. Just about every post I’ve written so far is about who we are in Christ and how much God loves us. As I write today, I’d like to reflect on another aspect of who we are–we are made to love.
Is there one person on earth who does not know the ten commandments? Let’s look at what Jesus said in Mark 12 about the most important commandment. “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.
Do you see the key words here? We are to love. We’re to love God. We’re to love others. Oh my gosh… it’s such an amazing, simple identity! To feel loved, we are to love! God wouldn’t tell us to love, and tell us it’s the most important thing to do in life is to love if we weren’t capable of loving.
It is difficult for some to love because those who were trusted to love back did not. I have had people that have hurt me, but I still love them. I have people I don’t trust and may never trust again but I still love them. See? I could choose to be bitter, hateful even, but God gave this command to love Him and love others for a few reasons. One, He is worthy of our worship, love and admiration (but He doesn’t need us to love Him for Him to love us!). Two, He wants us to love others because it keeps us humble and less selfish and self focused. But, three, He wants us to love because we are made in His image and He IS love! By loving others we not only experience a piece of who we are but also a bit of who He is!
We will never know who we are, who we were really made and meant to be until we love and love well, not just our best friends, not just our family, but love all people, even our enemies. And how do we do this? We follow the example of the One who loves us most (though we are far from deserving of His love.) While we were still sinners, Jesus died on the cross for us. It took love for Him to do such a thing. He gave of Himself for our sake. This is how we love and how we discover what it means to be the Bride of the King!
I was inspired today by a devotional written by the great Andrew Murray who quoted an old Moravian brother suggesting, “preach it [truth, love, joy, etc] because you believe it is what God’s word teaches. You will soon find what you are seeking and will then preach it because you possess it.”
I could not help but think of all the times I’ve heard people suggest we “think positive”. While I’m all about thinking optimistically, I often question the validity of simply looking in the mirror and walking out the door each morning believing I’m the best thing since sliced bread just because I told myself this in front of the mirror. I’ve never been a believer that we can pull ourselves out of every mud hole by our own boot straps. I don’t always look so great when I look in the mirror, especially in the morning! I know all too well my faults and lying in the mirror doesn’t make me who I am!
Yes, I, like my other Sisters and Brothers, are Brides to the King of Kings. Yes, we are adopted into God’s family; we are His adopted children who share in the same as inheritance in Heaven. But this is truth, not something I have to convince myself of, and not always something I see in the mirror or feel in my heart. What the Great Andrew Murray was inspired by in this quote is not that he had to convince himself of something to feel it. He had to preach the Truth because it is Truth and in time His heart tagged along for the ride!
We can’t just convince ourselves that we’re special when we know all too well all our faults and weaknesses. We can however preach (to ourselves) who we really are–Brides of the King. If we aren’t filled with the joy of that, with the fulfillment of that, with the peace about that, preach it anyway, not because you want to believe it, not because you deserve it, not because you feel it, but because it’s true. The same with feeling alone. We might feel alone but God tells us we are not alone.
Fill in the blank. “I feel ____” If it’s not true according to God’s Word to us, then even when you ‘feel’ that way, speak the Truth according to Scripture because it’s what God says about you. He made you. He knows better than you who you really are. In time, your heart will catch up to your thinking.
We must tell ourselves the truth. In time, we’ll feel the results. In time, what your mind accepts as fact, as Truth, will soon turn to find the heart running in, catching up to it and the smile you give yourself in the mirror will be one accompanied by a giggle as you think, “I look like this, I still stumble around in this crazy life at times, and yet, I am a Bride of the King. Thank you Lord for such honor and grace!”
The Bible tells us that in the beginning God made the earth, sun, moon, stars, our planet, its vegetation, crawling, flying, swimming, walking creatures and He then made the man and woman. Thankfully in our high technology world, there’s more evidence in scientific research to prove God’s creation than there is to prove the long believed theory of evolution, but the point I’d like to bring up is this. Though Adam and Eve lived in paradise they were still made to live dependent on God’s provision. In that dependency they found freedom to live and enjoy each other and the lovely creation that surrounded them. It was so lovely and perfect, the Lord even walked with them in the midst of this paradise. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” Genesis 3:8
Can you imagine the Lord walking amongst us? He did walk amongst mankind 2000 years ago but everyone was confused about who He really was. Before the fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed a paradise not like any every dreamed of in our modern culture and it was not a surprise that the Lord walked amongst them in the Garden—until of course, the first sin.
Sin tainted everything including how we think and feel and respond (or in most cases react) to the world around us. But there is one element of our make up that as humans still remains—we were made to be dependent. Does that sound shocking? It might because we’re a culture that gives the impression that independence means happiness and being “on top of the heap” or “ahead of the pack.”
Since losing my husband almost three years ago, I’ve met many widowed men and women. I am surprised at how much they relied on their spouses for things in life, even if they had a lot of freedom to do many things they liked to do. Many felt independent for many years even in a good working marriage but when the spouse died and the bookkeeper was gone, the cook was absent, and many other roles erased, they have the sudden rude awakening that they were very dependent on their spouse!
The usual reaction to this is to pull one up by one’s own boot straps only to fall on their faces. Besides the fact that while in grief there is not enough strength to pull oneself up by boot straps, they will struggle all the more if they attempt to suddenly be independent. As Brides of the King, we will find greater peace when we remain dependent on the One who is bigger than our losses, our sorrows, our struggles, and our inability to make decisions, our finances, our thinking, our emotions, and every other aspect of our living.
We were made to be dependent! And we will always walk on shifting sand if we depend on ourselves, the mighty dollar or what it can buy. We will find our greatest joy and peace, even in the midst of sorrow, even in the midst of hardship, when we put our Hope and trust in the Lord and depend on Him as a Husband who loves His Bride (the true church) with abundant love and delight. She is beautiful to Him and He not only longs to care for her but is capable of doing so even when the world is falling apart in the world around her.
The beauty (if I might word it that way in this context) of losing whatever has been our source of dependency, is that the Lord is waiting for us to transfer the dependency we had for love, comfort, pleasure, basic needs, help or anything else to Him. Transferring dependency to Him is not easy because we usually have to wait for Him but waiting does three key things…it changes our character. We can become more bitter or “more better”, meaning more like Jesus. It also builds and proves our faith. If we asked for anything and it fell out of the sky and into our laps we’d be brats! And last, it keeps us desperate. We hate desperation until we realize it is a key element in the dependent relationship the Lord would like us to take us into. Dependency keeps us in communication with Him.
Examine your life. Are you trying to take on the world without help? Do you feel like you can’t ask for help? Do you think there’s no one trustworthy or sincere enough to care about you so you have to “get things done on your own”? Do you find this exhausting? It is! I should know. I did it for years! And if you are one to worry that you are already too dependent–praise God! You already know how to be!
God is waiting for us to transfer our trust and hope over to Him. He longs for us to rely on Him for love and all our basic needs. When my late husband and I lost a business several years ago which led to our unemployment, which led to losing a home and life savings, we prayed continuously for God’s help. I realized during that season that God didn’t promise to pay the mortgage we chose to get ourselves entangled in. He promises to provide what we need for the day.
During that time we never had the power turned off, we never went without food, we always had enough money to put gas in the one car we were left with to go to church, the grocery store and job interviews. The money came from odd jobs and selling items we didn’t need any more. God provided our basic needs. It wasn’t easy. Life hasn’t been easy since the day I squeezed out of my Mama’s womb! But life’s gotten easier to deal with since I’ve transferred my hope and joy and peace and strength and my source of love to the One who has it to give—consistently and perfectly.
Praise be to the man or woman who feels like they are just too dependent on others and then discovers the great freedom found in their transferred dependency in God–especially freedom of worry! They will begin a new life in a new relationship—a relationship with the King of Kings who has walked the rough journey before us and is willing to walk this journey with us! It doesn’t get any better than that!
A few months after my late husband passed away, while sitting at a traffic light on my way into town, I saw a soldier drive by. I remember asking the Lord if I would miss my husband the same if he weren’t dead but was instead deployed and I knew he’s be returning home eventually. The Lord quickly brought these words to mind, “Gail, you don’t have the picture right. He is Home; you are still deployed. Fight the good fight until it’s your time to come Home because I have things for you to do here.”
This is a statement that God makes to us all. 1 Timothy 6:12 tells us to “Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Later in 2 Timothy, we see the attitude we should hope to have when we are near the end of our days here. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7
In this blog we’ve examined several aspects of who we are in Christ. While considering ourselves to be Brides of Jesus, which we are, we must also picture the lovely wedding garb covered with the invisible but also invincible shield of armor we’re asked to wear in Ephesians 6. 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 [and he will!], 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.”
Early in my life as a Follower of Christ, I was asked at a Bible Study group, who’d I’d like to be in the Bible (if I could be someone else). The ladies were puzzled when I explained that I’d want to be Job. It’s not that I wanted to be hit with all the destruction and hardship Job had to endure but rather I wanted to have the same attitude he has at the beginning of the destruction and the one he had near the end of the destruction. I wanted the depth of his faith.
His story is of great importance to us! In the beginning of the book of Job we see him described as a righteous man, “blameless and upright”. It should be clear that if this very righteous man would experience the death all of his children and servants, would witness the destruction of his entire world (crops, livestock, etc) and endure painful illness and sores of the skin that we would surely not be exempt from the same no matter how righteous we’ve been made by Jesus blood! So you might ask, “What on earth is the armor for if we may be hit with this kind of attic?”
As Believers, as Brides of the King, we must endure the pain of the world. We are not exempt from the consequences of living in a broken world. What kind of witness would we be to those broken without Christ if they could not see Christ in us and through us even in our own brokenness? We must be a witness of Hope while in th emidst of suffering! We are not commanded to be soldiers and put on armor to somehow ensure us of an “easy” life. The armor is to protect our hearts, minds and souls so that while there may be little peace around us there is always peace within us. As long as we’re still here on earth, we still live in a broken world.
As soldiers we are commanded to fight the “good fight”. Winning the battles of life requires seeking the presence of God in our life everyday. It’s too easy to look around at the brokenness and sorrow around us and think, “Where’s God in this?” But soldiers of Christ know that God is with us and instead of looking at the brokenness and concluding that God’s not there, they know God is “there” and they look for Him. The battle is to protect the faith that must forever linger in our heart and mind.
As we learn how to fight the good fight, we will find our “rank” in the armor, the place we fit in to the war zone. We ALL have things God wants us to do here. We are to continuously experience peace and victory in knowing that God is ever present with us. He brings good out of all things (and circumstances) for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Remain a “winner” of the faith with purpose and determination all the days we remain on earth until it’s our time to come Home. Fight well!
While resisting part of my body that wanted to get up and write from the part that wanted to steal another 30 minutes of sleep, I suddenly thought of the Liberty Bell. Please note, I don’t think of the Liberty Bell very often, in fact, I don’t ever think of it unless there is mention of it on a documentary or someone is showing off pictures of a recent trip to PA!
Because of the strange nature of this sudden fascination of the liberty bell, and because I immediately realized my connection with this iconic symbol of American Independence, I knew beyond doubt, God put the picture of the Liberty Bell on my mind today. It is to be the subject of my blog today so be patient with me as you continue to read why.
The topic of this blog is to help us comprehend our true God created identity that we might live as God intended, with the fulfillment and purpose God intended for us. Because most of us think rather low of ourselves most of the time, it’s important to be reminded of just how much God loves us, how beautiful He sees each of his children, and the value each one is meant to have in our temporary home we call the world. Yet, as I think of the Liberty Bell this morning, I’m impacted by the realization that we must be continuously reminded of our brokenness. Without remembering our brokenness, we cannot correctly represent who we really are or who God really is.
One day, a young man complained to me because his wife continuously told him he was stupid and worth nothing more than a spineless worm. I knew he hoped I’d talk to his wife and shame her into trying to stop this degrading trend (which did need to stop!). But I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of the marriage so God quickly tumbled these words from my lips, “Well, it’s true isn’t it? After all, none of us really worth more than a spineless worm in light of all whom God is and all who God intended us to be, right?” He looked at me like I had six heads!
I went on to explain the point that I was trying to make with him—being confident enough in who God is and who we are in Him that we can respond to such critical accusations in light of what is true about us. What is the truth about us? We are as grand as the Liberty Bell and yet just as broken. There is a balance and both aspects of the spectrum are as needed in our identity of ourselves as the other. The Liberty Bell represents freedom and victory. It also represents the wounds of war and use.
If we belong to Jesus, there should be evidence of being set free, not free to do whatever we want in life, but free to become who we were made to be, free from condemnation, free from carrying overloaded backpacks of guilt and shame. However, the scars of carrying the guilt and shame also represent us. Without people seeing the scars and the continued battle we are in to live the life God intended, other broken people can’t relate. We can’t stay identified with the condemned person worth no more than a slimy worm, but we can’t forget the place where God found us either. It’s as much a part of who we are as identifying ourselves as the beautiful bride we truly are also! We are both and the secret to living peacefully with ourselves and others is to become comfortable and confident in this spectrum of our identity. Then we can find peace. Then we can find joy. Then we can find our place and purpose in the lives of others. Then we find fulfillment and purpose.
Be strong as the mighty, grand and glorious Liberty Bell but allow the cracks, the scars, the wounds and the reminder of the continuous battle in life to also be an ever present part of our identity with a continued peace about the One who continues to victoriously and radiantly shine through us!
I write now as a newly wed. I will confess, that while I anticipated the joy of the honeymoon night, I actually got quite shy when we got to the hotel room. I was quickly reminded of the areas of my old wrinkled body that are still chubby and even flabby in some areas. Worries of whether my new husband would be disappointed to see these areas of my body that were off limits to his vision before the honeymoon flooded my thoughts with embarrassment. I could not help but wonder if every new bride suddenly faces the same concerns, at least the brides in this culture where physical beauty is overly emphasized as being greatly important to relations of attraction.
The struggle between knowing I am loved both by my new husband and God, between feeling embarrassed and being confident in who I really am, a beautiful bride to the King, didn’t last long. I quickly realized that I married a man who loves my heart, my passion for life, for Christ, for others. These things covered my weary old often neglected body and he saw a beautiful woman.
Where did he learn to love like this? It is modeled by our Lord. I know that I am not the perfect woman God made me to be. The effects of being conceived in the womb of a broken world can’t be jump over by the world’s opinion of a beautiful body. Wealth, physical beauty, social status, intelligence or any amount of good deeds can evict any one of us from being short of perfect. Yet, God sees me through the blood of my Savior and what He sees is righteous, brilliant,white as snow and yes, absolutely beautiful!
If my human husband with his own imperfections can see the passions of my heart clothed over this imperfect physical body to the point of seeing a beautiful woman, I can’t imagine how much more Jesus, my Heavenly and Perfect Husband, my King sees a beautiful woman when He looks at me covered in His blood. Now don’t get me wrong, my earthly husband sees the imperfections both physically and in my heart. He sees my weak moments, my times of procrastination, or worry or frustrations or just negative thinking but he doesn’t want to punish me for it. He looks beyond those things are remembers the things he loves most about me. He has grace because our Lord sees him the same way too. He has grace and I have grace for him.
Jesus is no different. He knows our shortcomings, our stubbornness and failures, our guilt, our shame and all that’s worthy of condemnation. But when we’re covered in His blood, these things are made clean. They are covered over. Jesus loves us so much that He gave His life up that we might have life and have it more abundantly. So few know just how much love that really is! And He doesn’t love and then take it back like some spouses might in a broken marriage. No! His love is consistent and forever.
Will you take the risk? Will you accept the proposal of marriage to the King? Will you allow yourself to be loved with a perfect, never ever failing love? You can be if you accept that Jesus proposes the marriage to not just me but to you also. I’ve accepted and live daily with Him. He’s with me daily loving me no matter what I’m going through because He loves me and knows what it means to live in this broken world. Then, like a good, wise Husband, He teaches me how to live in this broken world and my broken condition and He changes us all the while making us more and more beautiful daily.
Will you join me in this great call to be the bride to King of Kings?
It was my intent to post a word of encouragement on this website twice a week but planning a wedding while also planning for holidays, gift giving, meal prep, and the usual events that life throws our way has taken most of my attention these past weeks. But this week God has reminded me that there is great blessing in doing life in ways that please and honor Him. I just have to carve out the time to share. I hope it inspires others who need the encouragement this week to persevere in what is right and good in God’s eyes. It’s always worth it in God’s time and economy!
Mike and I are getting married in less than a week! He’s moved most of his belongings here from his home which is 2 1/2 hours away, but he’s continued to rent a room down the street from a friend of mine. We spend all day together, shopping, cooking, cleaning, talking, visiting friends, running errands, and even napping on the couch together, but at 11:30 p.m. he drives back to his room down the street and doesn’t come back until breakfast the next day.
To some this might not seem like a big deal. To others it might seem like a big waste of money. After all, he’s still paying his mortgage (his house isn’t rented until January) and he’s also been paying rent for the room down the street. In this day and age, few would think twice if Mike just moved in with me a few weeks before the wedding. It goes on all the time in our society. It might seem practical and “a smart move financially”. Perhaps some might think, ‘after all you’ve been married before. What’s the big deal?”
God’s Word tells us to keep ourselves from immorality. Scriptures tell us that the intimacy of sex is for a husband and a wife. That does not include an engaged couple. Mike and I are waiting for this part of our relationship until our wedding day. The honeymoon will not merely be a vacation together; it will be taking our friendship to a new level. Conversation is our only means of expression right now and it’s wonderful for us both! Through conversation with one another about almost everything, we feel more prepared to go into our marriage with grace, love, kindness, gentleness and faith than if we’d plunged into “getting to know each other better” or “trying it out” by means of living together.
Again, some might think that living together would be a smarter decision. It was in my pre-Christian days, but in God’s economy it is not wise at all. God knows where our relationship can go in this courting stage and since He’s Sovereign over our income, he will take care of the extra expense of the rent and mortgages we are paying now. Walks of faith don’t always make sense to the human way of thinking. Proverbs 3:5 tell us to “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Ever wonder why we are asked to trust and not rely on our own way of thinking? Does it seem like God’s just being a bully here, requiring us to shut up and do things his way whether we like it or not, whether it makes sense to us or not? Let me answer such questions with an unmitigated, “NO”! This instruction is intended to prepare us for blessings God desires to pour out on our lives and in so doing, He also is glorified!
We want God’s blessing in our marriage. In order for Him to do that, our hearts and minds must be in the right place. Part of being in the right place means we are also prepared to wait for God’s timing and for whatever is God’s blessing. It also means we don’t dictate to God what His blessing should be, what we think it should be or when we think we should receive it either! (Although we can humbly pray for it with trust in whatever His answer will be.) Some people get angry at God because they didn’t receive (yet) an expected blessing or answered prayer and turn away to do things their way own way. I wonder how many blessings I’ve missed due to my arrogant and impatient thinking at times.
Last week Mike and I were talking about the blessings God’s showered on us during this time of courtship–spiritually, mentally and in many circumstances! And though we feel this has been more blessing than we even deserve, God showered us with yet another blessing–an affirmation in our minds that we are moving into this marriage with God’s hand over us. We can almost hear Him saying, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”, words we do long to hear!
The day after reflecting on God’s many blessings, Mike received a letter from Social Security. The payments he receives for disability retirement were re-evaluated and he’s been unpaid all this time! Not only did they pay the difference but there will be a pay increase every month from now on! In the context of this story–he is getting back much more than the money “wasted” in paying rent and mortgages. Now there’s extra money for us to truly enjoy our honeymoon!
In my early years as a Believer, I often toiled to understand how we can know if we are in God’s will. But as I’ve continued to walk life with Jesus over the past 16 years, I see it’s not as complicated as I once made it. His Word is clear about how our lives can honor the Lord.
Here’s some verses about God’s view on sexuality and marriage for instance: Ephesians 5:3. “But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” 1 Corinthians 7:2 says, “…each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.” These instructions are clear and there are many that help us get our lives, our thinking, our hearts on track with God in all areas of living. Doing so is for God’s glory, our good, and brings blessings too.
Ephesians 5 helps us see the likeness of marriage of husband and wife to that of Christ’s “marriage” to His people. Mike and I are very excited to be starting out our relationship in ways that honor our LORD. It is our prayer that when people meet us, they will catch a glimpse of Christ’s love for His family, His Bride (that’s us) by the way we love each other and the testimony of our faith and trust in God’s ways. Sex, as well as many other things in life, are worth waiting for when it’s for His glory.
If you’ve read any of the other pages on this site, you’ll see that I’m actually getting married. Yup…January 8 is the big day! One of the first things I did after accepting the proposal was pick out the dress I’d walk walk down the isle in.
Because this will be my second wedding and I’m 54 years old, it didn’t seem appropriate to deck myself out in a formal wedding dress. However, I do plan on wearing a lovely ivory evening gown that is simple but stunning. I ordered it online and was delighted to see that it fit! (I’m still enjoying the rewards of my recent 70 pound weight loss!)
In spite of the perfect fit though, I realized that I needed to purchase the appropriate undergarments to smooth out the lumps and bumps of this older, recently shrunken body. I set out to a specialty shop and found the perfect under garments. I’ll basically be covered from arm pits to knees in smoothing-out under garb!
When I was being fitted for these sneaking little under clothes that will truly change the appearance of this old bod, I couldn’t help but think about how Scriptures tell us to dress. Two of my favorite passages come to mind: Ephesians 6:10-17 and Colossians 3:12. They read as follows (NIV):
Ephesians 6: 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.”
Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
I would compare the under garments I purchased with many of the defensive pieces of the armor of God. It’s the protection that holds it all in. The wedding dress is like the “clothes” described in Colossians. We don’t dress as a bride every day but as I prepare to be a bride again, I find myself becoming more keenly aware of what I’m “wearing” spiritually. The only way I can walk each day in “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” is to first have on my armor protecting me from the lies and attacks of the enemy. Everyday I’m challenged to believe and accept who I really am (Bride of the King Jesus). And just as I will need help squeezing myself and snapping myself into the undergarb on my wedding day, I sometimes need help with remembering who I really am. On those days I call friends who speak Truth to me when I’m finding it difficult to hear Truth on my own and flustered thoughts distract words in Scripture.
I’m not perfect–far from it. This is just the life of the Christian. We’re challenged everyday to be who we were made to be and in this fallen world, we’re challenged with an equal blend of lies and Truth but starting each day out “dressing” in the appropriate “inner and outer wear” can be the foundation for starting each day out right!
Posted in identity, loss, Widow
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Tagged armor, attire, bride, clothe, death, dress, jesus, king, loss, wedding, widow
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