May 2018 – Live the Crazy Life

Dressed for success

The perfect shirt that makes you feel pretty. Those jeans that make you feel skinny. That whole outfit that makes you think you can take on the world and win every time. It is interesting how clothing makes you feel. Sweats make you feel safe and comfy, while the right blouse and pants can make you feel powerful and unstoppable. But regardless of what you wear on the outside, you are the same you on the inside. Strange isn’t it? I got a few new super cute tops for Mother’s Day. I put one on and it made me feel amazing, beautiful, smart and noticed. I did get a lot of compliments that day in the office. However, that same day my daily devotion was on Gal. 3:27 which says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Some translations say clothed yourself with Christ. What a thought – I am clothed with Christ. This verse is talking about once you are saved you remove the old you (your sinful nature) and put on Christ. You become more like Christ. Ok, that is pretty easy to understand. The words clothed with Christ (which is what my devotional said) stuck with me all day.

I am clothed with Christ. What that verse literally says is that you are sinking into Christ. Think back to those comfy sweats or yoga pants you just feel so at peace in – so comfortable in. You know those pants you can’t wait to put on when you get home from work. We all have a pair of pants like that. For you maybe it’s jeans or yoga pants. For me it’s a pair of – I guess you could call them yoga pants – I don’t honestly know what to call them. But they are black with pinkish flowers and are made of the softest cotton in the world. I want to live the rest of my life in these pants. Now that you are thinking how good your (whatever type of) pants feel, think of this: do you ever feel that way about Christ? Do you ever long to just sink into Jesus? If not, maybe you should change up your time with Jesus. However you do devotional life with God, it should feel like those pants you can’t wait to put on. It should be the time of day you long for, can’t wait for, and want to last longer.

But that isn’t all the Bible says about clothing. In fact, there are a lot of scriptures about clothing. The more I thought about putting on Christ, the more I searched what else I am to put on or take off.

Luke 12:35 says to be dressed for action. The idea here is the biblical concept of girding your loins. Which just sounds funny. Can you imagine if you call your kids down for breakfast in the morning and they respond with, “I’ll be right there. I’m just girding my loins”? Oh my, that would make me laugh. But the idea of being dressed ready to serve at His command is an admirable way to dress for life.

Colossians chapter 3 gives you a list of things to take off: anger, malice, slander, obscene talk. It also then gives a list of things to put on or clothe yourself with: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, and above all love which binds everything together.

Isaiah 61:3 says to put on the garment of praise. Yes, the Bible really does have a lot to say about what we should clothe ourselves in.

So the next time you get dressed in your “best foot forward” outfit, ask yourself this question: Are you also wearing compassion, kindness, humility and love that ties the whole outfit together? And when you slip into your comfy pants, let those pants be a reminder to find time to sink into Christ. What you put on can change the way you feel about yourself, but when you spend time with Jesus it will change you!

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Living in light of wisdom

It’s May!! Wow, this year is flying by, and what a year it has been. It has had some amazing moments and quite possibly some of my very lowest moments, too! This year, which started with my theme word for the year of steadfast love, slowly morphed into a year where two words – steadfast love and wisdom – (thus far) are making the framework for how I view everything. I still am learning to see everything in life through the steadfast love of God; which by the way is a great viewpoint to live from. Then, slowly, wisdom crept into my line of sight. There has been so much that I don’t know how to respond to, or I simply respond in my own ways -which usually lack wisdom and end up making a mess of the situation. So I found myself creating the monthly memory verse this month and hoping I could return to steadfast love but found wisdom swirling in my heart and mind. So here it is.

James 3:17 “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

I want to live with God’s wisdom in all situations – never my own. I fail at this a lot, but I promise it is a goal. So I am learning to distinguish my wisdom from God’s. That, my friend, involves prayer. Before I go any further in what I believe this verse to mean, I must disclose that prayer is the key to the whole thing. You can’t have wisdom from God if you are not talking to God about whatever the situation may be. Ok, now that that is established, let’s look at the verse a little deeper.

Being true to me I looked at what all the different words that describe wisdom mean. Some mean exactly what they say, and others had deeper meanings. Let me show you. Wisdom means intellect. Uh, could have guessed that. But pure means in a condition prepared for worship. So when I am seeking wisdom from God it will come in the form of intellect that puts my heart in a place of worship. That is not all that pure means. It also means not mixed with guilt. Meaning whatever I feel the Lord saying to do will not make me feel guilty for doing it in the end.

Peaceable means God’s gift of wholeness – knowing the Lord’s will and obeying it. God will make clear the best way to respond to the situation, and your job is to obey it. Then it is gentle. I just loved what I found this to mean. You would expect it to mean easy or soft in some way; but not so much here. It means truly fair by relaxing overly strict standards in order to keep the spirit of the law. God won’t hold us to some impossible standard. He will never change what is right and what is wrong, but how He leads through wisdom is usually a curvy path rather than a straight line.

Then comes open to reason, not meaning that you are open to being swayed by what you feel the Lord has said in a given situation, but rather that it is easy to obey. When you spend time seeking God in prayer, you place yourself in a position to obey. He moves your heart to that place of obedience. Mercy means what you would expect mercy to mean. But good fruit means something amazing here in this verse. It means everything done in true partnership with Christ resulting from two life streams – the Lord moving through our lives to yield what is eternal. Lastly, impartial means being certain, and sincere means free from hidden agendas.

Ok, that was a lot. Let me put all of this together for you. Life bombards us with decisions. Some have no impact on our life beyond that moment. Others have an impact that lasts years, and some for eternity. When those big decisions need to be made, God will give you wisdom. James 1:5 tells us God will give us wisdom when we ask. When He does, it brings peace and makes us stand in awe and worship God. It isn’t a strict and heavy burden to carry. You won’t have doubt. You will approach the whole thing full of mercy. It will yield eternal impact, and you won’t have hidden agendas in your heart.

This year has led me to make HUGE decisions I never imagined having to think about, let alone decide the right thing to do in the situation. They have been heart-wrenching hard choices, but I have been able to make those decisions in peace because I leaned into God and sought wisdom from above.

Click Here for the May memory verse