Proverbs 11-13; Psalm 8; Romans 13

By Becky Hill Martin

Proverbs 11-13; Psalm 8; Romans 13

As a child, my mom dressed me and my brother for church in our Sunday best, then told us not to move while she got ready. You know where this is going – right? Yep – we moved.  In the 5 minutes it took her to get ready, we stomped in mud puddles, sat in the wet grass, and got pop-tart goo on our hands, then wiped off on each other. No wonder mom and dad usually skidded into the church parking lot on 2 wheels, 10 minutes late and red in the face from yelling at us for ruining our clothes and making them late the entire time. We weren’t late because we changed – no, we were still in those clothes as punishment.

Being a Christian is a lot like wearing our Sunday best clothes. In Paul says, we are to clothe ourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 13:14 NLT). We’re saved from sin and the spiritual death it brings. We get to wear our Sunday best 24/7. The hard part is keeping my clothes clean. I mean – I can’t go off all willy-nilly jumping in mud puddles of sin and expecting my spiritual clothing to stay clean. And no amount of “shout” in the world is going to get the grass stains of selfishness, wine stains of wrong motives, and ketchup stains of unkind words out of my clothes. Yes, we live in the world, so it’s easy to make it to church looking like you’ve just won The Color Run.

Luckily, God is the ultimate dry cleaner. When I let the world leave residue on my spiritual clothes, I come to Him and confess my sins. Then He lets me trade in my dirty clothes for the shining armor of righteousness.

PRAYER – Dear God, I praise You because, no matter how badly my clothes are ruined from sin, You are there, waiting to make me new and whole. Thank You for the assurance that even though we live in this muddy, pop-tart goo filled world, You set us apart from it and back on the path that leads to Heaven.

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