Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Monday, May 13, 2019

Audio Link: http://bit.ly/ThoughtsinWorship

This is devotional thought number 32 in our devotional series titled, “The Faith I Live By”

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22–24).

I hope you have a change of clothes handy, because we are going to an all white affair.

I am not going to lie to you, I don’t like being told exactly how I must dress if I am going somewhere. I do understand if it’s a formal affair, what the expectation is. I understand work uniforms. I understand international theme celebrations. I understand all of that. However, I don’t like being told that I must wear exactly this or that, or else I cannot come in to an event; like all white parties, which is why I have never been to one. It looks nice in pictures with everyone wearing white hats, shirts, blouses, pants, dresses, dress shorts, scarves, and everything in between, but it’s just not my thing.

Unfortunately, some of us have my attitude relating to all white parties when it comes to righteousness. We admire those whose characters have been washed clean and white in the blood of the Lamb. We love when people are kind, honest, loving, generous, joyful,and have integrity; but for some of us, it’s just not our cup of tea. When it suits us, we have no problem blurring the line between right and wrong. We admire certain righteous actions, but have no real desire to be transformed by our righteous Heavenly Father. We’d rather snub the event host and keep on our own attire, like the man who decided to wear his own unrighteous garments in Matthew 22.

God has been so good, that some of us have recovered from our spiritual wardrobe malfunctions that have left us exposed to the consequences of sin. Some have been so thankful that we have taken off our old, corrupt selves and allowed God to recreate us in righteousness and true holiness. We have allowed God to accomplish His will in our lives, and cover us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In the end, we discovered that Allowing God to give us a change of clothes was not so bad afterall. In fact, having experienced the change, we would not have it any other way.

By God’s grace, this is the faith I live by, let this be the same for you, in Jesus’ name.—L. David Harris (http://bit.ly/BQuotable)

#theprotestisnotover #thefaithiliveby