To Be Clothed in Truth, We Need a Better Stylist

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This week we were reading Strategy 2 in Fervent by Prascilla Shirer. There was a portion covering Ephesians 6 and the putting on of our spiritual armor. Last week I wrote about how the belt of truth never lies to us about who we are in the eyes of God and I wrote about how to keep our Spiritual passion banked up so we are always ready for fervent and strategic prayer. Today I want to tell you about identity with a story about my little sister.

My sister likes dressing with style, even after she has had two children. She is one of those people that knows how a scarf works and does not choose shoes according to their utilitarian virtues.  I just finished the blush I have had since the sixth grade and I wore red converse to a publishers meeting. I need her in my life.

If you really need to know the truth about a dress, she is the one we ask. If any of us have an event this is the sister we bring into the dressing rooms. Her judgement is swift and unsentimental. Don’t get me wrong, she is sweet and ever so very polite. She will hold her tongue and serve you coffee with a smile no matter what you are wearing. She understands the value of a worn pair of yoga pants, but in the dressing room, if you invite her in she will whittle down your pile to just what’s best for you.

Go ahead and try on that dress. She will tell you if it’s the wrong cut. Hold that sweater up to your face and she might tell you to try another color. She is a proactive dresser. She will bring in a pile of pretty things right to you, so you can pick out of what you know is going to be right for you. You will find that the selections match you perfectly. When I put them on, I look like the best version of me possible. She knows what I like so well that I always look authentically like myself.

In the same way the Holy Spirit helps us by keeping us from wearing an identity that does not belong to us. He shares the mind of God and knows exactly what God created us to become. It reminds me of that lady at the mall with the color wheel offering to help you know your best color, except the Spirit is always perfect in His assessment of what’s most suited for you.

If we have given the Spirit permission to speak to our hearts, we have invited Him into the dressing room of our soul. If we trust in God, we can hold up those things that we question and get an honest answer. He will urge us to discard poorly fitting and worn attitudes. He will always bring us good things to put on.

It is up to us to put on the truths that remain after our heart has been purged. It is our job to wrestle into them and make them part of our identity. I bought swimsuit last summer. It makes me think of some of the articles in that little dressing room in my soul.  There are a few things that he Holy Spirit wants me to put on that just don’t fit. That swim suit I bought pinches and rubs me wrong, just like some of the things the spirit wants me to put on, like love. It is going to take some serious working out to make those commandments fit me well.

For now I am squeezing into love and grace and faith. I am squeezing in and letting myself be uncomfortable for a bit. The last thing I want to do is leave gifts the Holy Spirit has given me behind in the dressing room.

There are some things that are worth working hard to make them fit.

May your heart be Fervent to be dressed in Christ.