Dress Appropriately
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”—Romans 13:14 (ESV)
Where I live it can get very, very cold. The kind of cold that when you go outside the hairs in your nose freeze. That’s cold! And then with snow and wind chill it’s…brrrrrrrrr. I have learned through the years that the only way to be prepared for the cold is to dress appropriately. I am prepared for winter. Before I go outside in that kind of temperature I am layered up. I have on long underwear, thick socks, and some fantastic boots that can handle the slush, snow and ice. I wrap up in a scarf, a fantastic Norwegian hat that can keep out any chill thrown at it, a ski mask for my face, a thick coat, Carhart overalls, and gloves that enable me to pick up nuclear waste. I am prepared. Cold can’t get to me. There is no place where my skin is exposed.
I’ve learned to dress appropriately after years of failure. After having the hair on my legs freeze, or slipping and sliding over the ice because I don’t have the right shoes on, or having my ears get numb, or my gloves get wet, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. It took me a long time to get to where I am at, but now I have got it down so that when I step outside and that freezing wind hits me, it’s got nothing. It can’t get to me. I’m layered up. I can handle anything the world can throw out at me.
There is a spiritual parallel here. Paul tells us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” The wording here means getting dressed, like putting on your winter coat. It’s putting on Jesus. Getting dressed in Jesus. It means wrapping yourself so up in Christ that your flesh can’t get out and the world can’t get in. Anyone who has lived any period of time as a Christian starts to realize where his or her areas of sin lay. The important thing is learning from our failures. We may get frostbite, we may slip and fall, but we all can learn from our mistakes so that the next time when the winter storm of sin comes, we can get dressed in Jesus and live accordingly. How does that play out in real life? It means memorizing the scripture verses that pertain to the sin that you struggle with. It means memorizing the Word so that it becomes part of you, so that when temptation comes you have it right in your mind, flashing in your thoughts, telling you what to do. Secondly, it means knowing your weak points. We all sin, every single person on the planet, and we all sin in different ways. It’s finding out how you sin, when you sin, and with whom you sin, and then combating it. Coming up with a battle plan on how to dress when confronted with those realities. And when you see the patterns, memorize the scriptures, and dress accordingly, you can live in victory and walk out into the storm of life without being harmed. Let’s do it together. Let’s get dressed in Jesus today. Amen.
Where I live it can get very, very cold. The kind of cold that when you go outside the hairs in your nose freeze. That’s cold! And then with snow and wind chill it’s…brrrrrrrrr. I have learned through the years that the only way to be prepared for the cold is to dress appropriately. I am prepared for winter. Before I go outside in that kind of temperature I am layered up. I have on long underwear, thick socks, and some fantastic boots that can handle the slush, snow and ice. I wrap up in a scarf, a fantastic Norwegian hat that can keep out any chill thrown at it, a ski mask for my face, a thick coat, Carhart overalls, and gloves that enable me to pick up nuclear waste. I am prepared. Cold can’t get to me. There is no place where my skin is exposed.
I’ve learned to dress appropriately after years of failure. After having the hair on my legs freeze, or slipping and sliding over the ice because I don’t have the right shoes on, or having my ears get numb, or my gloves get wet, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. It took me a long time to get to where I am at, but now I have got it down so that when I step outside and that freezing wind hits me, it’s got nothing. It can’t get to me. I’m layered up. I can handle anything the world can throw out at me.
There is a spiritual parallel here. Paul tells us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” The wording here means getting dressed, like putting on your winter coat. It’s putting on Jesus. Getting dressed in Jesus. It means wrapping yourself so up in Christ that your flesh can’t get out and the world can’t get in. Anyone who has lived any period of time as a Christian starts to realize where his or her areas of sin lay. The important thing is learning from our failures. We may get frostbite, we may slip and fall, but we all can learn from our mistakes so that the next time when the winter storm of sin comes, we can get dressed in Jesus and live accordingly. How does that play out in real life? It means memorizing the scripture verses that pertain to the sin that you struggle with. It means memorizing the Word so that it becomes part of you, so that when temptation comes you have it right in your mind, flashing in your thoughts, telling you what to do. Secondly, it means knowing your weak points. We all sin, every single person on the planet, and we all sin in different ways. It’s finding out how you sin, when you sin, and with whom you sin, and then combating it. Coming up with a battle plan on how to dress when confronted with those realities. And when you see the patterns, memorize the scriptures, and dress accordingly, you can live in victory and walk out into the storm of life without being harmed. Let’s do it together. Let’s get dressed in Jesus today. Amen.
I can attest to that principle. Every time I have a memorized verse to combat a temptation I have success. If I fail to have it, then I fail.
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