Put Him On

Last week, during our Wednesday night Youth Devotion, my husband read 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

“But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

  I know I have seen that scripture many times before, but this time two little words JUMPED OUT at me.

“putting on”

I began to ponder the meaning of that phrase “put on”.  If you have to “put something on” that means you were not born with it or it wasn’t originally a part of you. For example:  We have to put on clothes, because we are born naked.  Look at Mr. Potato Head (silly example, but effective).  When you open the package…he is just a potato.  You have to “put on” everything else. 

So I began the journey of figuring out the “putting on”.

 

Why would we need to “put on” FAITH?  Aren’t we born with it?  Not according to Paul in Romans 10:17 – “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  How can we have faith in something we have never even HEARD about?  We must read the word of God and we must hear it preached in order to have faith.  We have to PUT IT ON. 

What about LOVE?  Surely we are born with that.  But Paul speaks of our true nature in Galatians 5:19-21 – “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Our sin nature that we are born with does not include love.     We have to PUT IT ON.

 

And SALVATION…We are definitely not born with that.  Act 4:12 tells us – “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Of course this is referring to Jesus.  John 3:17-18 – “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” We have to PUT IT ON.

Why do people struggle so much with their faith?  Why is it so hard for them to love others?  Why do people question their salvation…or deny that they even need salvation?  Because these things are not natural within ourselves: We were not born with the capability to understand them.  We were not born with peace, joy, hope, or self-control either. 

We have to PUT THESE THINGS ON.

Galatians 5:16-17  – “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”

 They are not in us.  They are only found in Christ.

Galatians 5:22-24  – “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”

Are you struggling?  PUT HIM ON  Are you weary?  PUT HIM ON

  Are you worried?  PUT HIM ON  Are you distressed?  PUT HIM ON

 Are you weak?  PUT HIM ON  Are you lost?  PUT HIM ON

“You say… ‘I have everything I want. I don't need a thing!’  And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”  Revelation 3:17

“Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”  Romans 13:14

We have to put HIM on.

Our Love Story

Once upon a time, there was a little brown-haired girl from Texas and a little sandy-haired boy from Louisiana. 

When they were teenagers, the young boy moved to Texas, and began attending school at James Bowie in Simms. 

The young girl attended school at New Boston. 

Every morning the boy would go to the Korner Store (a little store right at the crossroads between Simms and New Boston) before school. 

The young girl's mother worked at the Korner Store, and over time, she just fell in love with the sweet young man from Louisiana.

She would go home and tell her daughter how handsome,

 sweet and polite the young man was. 

 And she would tell the young man how beautiful her daughter was.

So, it came to pass, that the young girl was bored one summer day.  Her mother suggested,

 "Why don't you give that young man that comes

 into the store a call?"   

She called him.  He just happened to be bored, too.

That was in August 1988...and by September they were "IN LOVE"

It was their Senior year of High School.  There were no cell phones or text messages....no computers, no Facebook....but there were lots of love notes...

There were two Senior Proms...he couldn't go to hers, she couldn't go to his...but he could stop by to pose for a picture...

They graduated, with big dreams for the future that included

baseball and college...

But quickly decided that one could not live without the other...

so the two became one September 16, 1989.

And 24 years later...the love story continues!

Treading on the Heights

When I was a little girl, I would spend my summers running and playing on the dirt roads around our farm house in the “country”.  Looking back now, it is so funny to me that our “Summer Home” (which was a trailer house in the middle of the woods) was about seven miles from our big house “in town.”   It seemed so far away back then!  We would stay at the “Summer Home” so that my parents would be close to the garden and the hayfields.  Then during the winter, we would go back to the big house where we would be closer to school.  

I remember those first few days of summer, trying to walk on the rocky dirt roads with bare feet. (I hated wearing shoes!!)  The bottoms of my feet would get so very sore, and I would have to walk on the road a while, then over on the shoulder of grass for a while. (But I refused to wear shoes for some reason??)   After a few days of running back and forth from my house to my cousin’s house, my feet would be as tough as nails (and probably very dirty)!

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  James 1:2-4 (NIV)

By the end of the summer, I didn’t have to walk on the grassy shoulder of the road anymore…I could happily run and play on the rocky dirt with my toughened feet…no problem! 

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”  Habakkuk 3:19 (NIV)

It seems like everywhere I turn lately God is showing me something about faith.  Our Sunday school lessons have been about faith, our women’s ministry just started a new study about faith, there was a message at the teen conference we attended last week about faith…

“because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance”

perseverance = endurance = patience

Just like walking on those rocky dirt roads toughened up my tender feet and prepared me for my summer journeys…the trials that I face today will toughen up my tender faith…and prepare me for my life journeys.   

“let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything”

Without those rocks, my feet would have stayed soft and weak.  Without trials, our faith will stay weak.  We have to trust that at the end of our “summer” of trials…we WILL be tougher, more mature, more complete. 

“he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the HEIGHTS”

With our faith strengthened…He takes us higher…from the depths below…He lifts us up…He sets us free to happily run the race that is set before us….with bare feet, toughened like the feet of a deer through trials.   

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds”

Be joyful…He is preparing you for the HEIGHTS.

 

 Listen to this song: Ever Lifting, Christy Nockels  Have a Faith-Filled Day!!!!