Who Gets You Dressed in the Morning?

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 We recently talked about clothes and the garments God has for us, but today I’d like to explore for a minute the topic of who dresses you? We’re not earthly royalty with paid staff to select our clothes and keep them looking their best, who present them to us and then dresses us as if we’re children.

So – who dresses you? Of course, you do, unless you’ve been physically compromised in some way.

As I mentioned before, there are many garments God provides for us. But we don’t stand at our closet choosing between the garments of praise vs attire of gloom and heaviness. Or do we?

Let me ask again, who gets you dressed? You? Or… your worst critic?

If I think of myself as a failure, the cynic in my head may get to be the one who picks out the clothes I’ll wear tomorrow. If I think of myself as not worthy of wearing the nicest clothes in my closet, I may well wind up walking around in public tomorrow looking “less than” as perhaps I don my most faded jeans and the blouse that’s seen a few too many days, or torn sweatpants and that saggy t-shirt that’s faded and stained.

Won’t everyone I meet be impressed?!

Now that’s not to say that these selections might be all that’s in your physical wardrobe, at the moment. But remember, God looks at the heart, only man looks at the appearance.

(pinterest - no my closet doesn't look like this either.)

If we see ourselves as the royalty we truly are, we’ll reach for that newer blouse and our best fitting slacks! (Unless we’re painting the bathroom today.) We’ve all heard phrases like “Dress for Success” or “Dress for the job you WANT to have”.

But what if we just dress as who we are in Christ? I’m His Princess. You may hear me call most every woman and girl I meet “Princess”. That’s because in Christ, that’s exactly who she is! She’s the daughter of the King of kings!

If you find yourself standing on the outside looking in, longing to belong to the kingdom of God – please ask me to introduce you to Him so you can take your rightful place seated with Jesus in heavenly places, at the right hand of God the Father, Himself! (See Ephesians 2:5-7 here.)

But even as Princesses, we all have days where we “just don’t feel like Princesses”. We trip occasionally and listen to a lie or two of the enemy and fall for them.

(pinterest - no, my closet doesn't look like this one, either.)

We ARE the righteousness of God, through Christ Jesus! We don’t have to work at being righteous. We probably need to work the holiness gig a bit, but when we submit our lives to Jesus, He puts His Robe of Righteousness on us Himself. We are righteous – in Him. Righteousness and holiness are not the same thing. Jesus came to earth to trade His Righteousness for our sin. We got the best end of that deal!

Holiness is walking out that righteousness, turning away from sin every time we’re tempted by the enemy of our soul, the one who’s plans include stealing us away from God. But God isn’t about to let that happen.

So today, spiritually speaking, let’s reach for the royal gown, not the filthy rags Jesus already tossed into the fire. Let’s walk with our head held high and our hand in the hand of the Man that stilled the waters and calmed the seas. Take a good look at yourself using the Word of God as your mirror. You are God’s royalty! (See 1 Peter 2:9 here.)

 

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“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Ephesian 2:5-7

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” 1 Peter 2:9

Holy?

God is holy. Be ye holy as He is holy.

 

Last night in church the question came to mind, Can one be very holy? Or super holy? Or exceptionally holy? Or just a little bit holy?

 

Then the response, No, you’re either holy or you’re not.

 

It’s like salvation. Either you’re saved by grace, or you’re not. You can’t be a little bit saved; born-again. You can’t be 99% saved. You’re either saved or you’re lost, no gray area. If you believe you’ve given 99% of your heart to God, in reality, you’re clinging to 100% of your heart, trying desperately to figure out what to do with it.

 

There’s only one safe place for your heart and that’s in Christ. There’s only One Who can fill the voids in your heart, that’s Jesus Christ. To continue to refuse Him entrance there commands that you continue to live life without meaning and purpose; searching. And it’s great that we search, but too often we run around the world looking for the treasure that’s found in our own backyard.

 

At dictionary.com we find one definition of holy that reads:  specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated.

When we give our whole heart to Jesus, we become holy. Not just a little bit holy, simply holy. Consecrated (set apart)  for Christ, by Christ. We are recognized as holy by God’s authority; not because we live good lives or say good things, but because God Himself declares us to be holy, because He declares us to be His.

 

When I go out and purchase something for myself, it becomes mine. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He paid the price for our sin, He bought us with His love and with His blood. We belong to Him. But He doesn’t lay claim to our love until we give it to Him. He gives us the right to withhold that love from Him, to try to fend for ourselves in a life He created to be lived in His power. Without Him, we are lost; we are unholy.

 

What holds you captive? What holds you back from giving your heart to the One Who created you and loves you and provides all the power you need to live abundantly?

 

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Leviticus 20:7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. (KJV)

Protection and Responsibility

Funny, some men won’t carry umbrellas – “it’s not manly”. (I can’t help but question, and it’s manly to get wet??) Little girls love to play with them. Some are as pretty as they are practical. Shading us from the sun, or protecting us from a downpour of rain – they serve their purpose, only when we carry them with us. How many times have I groaned because I’ve left mine in the car?

It’s not practical to carry my large, purple umbrella around with me everywhere. There are clearly days when it just isn’t going to rain.

But there is an umbrella of protection we can’t afford to put down and leave behind.

When hell rains down a flood of catastrophes down upon us as individuals or as a nation or even as the human race, where’s our umbrella of protection?

Those catastrophes are sins and their consequences; murders, hate, prejudices, deceptions, witchcraft, radical Islam (or other radical belief systems) deviant sexuality, choices with no acknowledged consequences.

We can choose to lay down our umbrella. We can be seduced to put it down, or bribed, or deceived by empty promises to cast aside the faith required to do things God’s way. But we are the ones that lay it down when we choose to do things our own way; we are ultimately the ones responsible.

This umbrella is made of faith in God and His holy Word, prayer and relationship with the One Who created us.

The other day I heard someone say, “Who’s talking about the problem? The problem is a lack of godliness.”

God instructs us to “Be holy, as I am holy.” (See Leviticus 11:44 & 45, 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:16 at the bottom of this post.)

Throughout the Bible we are warned repeatedly about sin and its consequences, yet today, even Christians choose to ignore what God has said, leaving us wide open for the onslaught of evils that permeate our society today.

Can I say it enough? We need to be in God’s Word, reading it, learning it, depending on it, and obeying it – or suffer the consequences.

Leviticus 11:44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: (KJV)

Leviticus 11:45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (KJV)

1 Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (KJV)

Marvelous Light

The stained glass windows were beautiful. The statues held me spellbound, wondering if they could really see me whisper with my sister in the choir loft. I sang loudly because I could. The man regally dressed in robes down front seldom smiled. He looked to languish through his routine, from memory. I’ll bet he could do it in his sleep.

And Jesus, the ultimate martyr, though I knew He’d risen from the dead, perpetually hung on the cross, agonizing over every little thing I did wrong.

The scene vividly comes to life in my memories as though I was fidgeting there now. As far as memory serves, this is where it all began. Though I know now that God was loving me, wooing me and calling me since before I was born, my mind doesn’t take me that far back.

I’m no longer surrounded by the colors that fall from the brilliant, stained glass windows that filled the room with a demand for respect of the authority represented therein. I miss the reverence; the aura of holiness. But today my understanding of the power of God lifts me up higher than where I sat in that choir loft. My childlike innocence faded away with my youth and I’ve learned many lies over the decades. But with Jesus renewing my life and as I renew my mind through His Word, innocence is not a thing of the past, but a new thing every morning, should I choose to embrace it.

Some mornings we wake up with a cloud over our heads. Who brought the cloud of discouragement? Who brought the empty, weary thoughts of meaninglessness? Does it matter? Sometimes they’re just there.

In the tabernacle of my mind, where God reveals Himself to me in new facets all the time, there are stained glass windows; there is an air of holiness; there is excitement and reverence and power and joy waiting for me. I miss out on all of that when I relinquish my right to go there. This is my place. This is my piece of heaven on earth.

The same foe that brings sorrows and emptiness brandishes his lies to keep me from fellowship with the God of the universe.

All I need to do is push past him. His authority is only that which I give him. Sometimes I give him a lot as I sulk.

With me, push past the gray into brilliance; push past the darkness to into God’s glorious, marvelous Light.

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;” 1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)

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