A Call to ActionSample

Dress Up

Have you been recognizing opportunities to respond to God’s call this week? So far, we’ve talked about the call to wake up and the call to clean up. Today, we’re looking at the call to dress up.

Imagine someone wearing medical scrubs. Where would you guess they worked? How about someone in camo fatigues and combat boots? Even when we don’t know a person, their uniform can usually tell us something about their job. Why? Because a uniform can help inform what a person does.

There isn’t an “official Christian uniform” that we all wear, but we are all called to spiritually dress up and put on a type of armor. The apostle Paul talks about this armor in Romans 13:12. He says, “put on the shining armor of right living.” In the time and place that Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, his audience would have been familiar with the uniform of the Roman soldiers who policed much of the territory. So, when Paul told them to “put on the shining armor of right living,” they would have automatically made the connection to the armor of the Roman soldiers.

It does make you wonder, though, out of all the metaphors he could have used to describe right living, why did Paul go with armor? One reason may be tied to the observation we made earlier: there’s something about a uniform that helps inform what a person does. Maybe Paul wanted to remind us that we are in a spiritual battle. After all, who wears armor? Soldiers. And what do soldiers do? They fight!

We’ve been talking about how God calls out to us every day, but the reality is we have an enemy who works against us when we try to follow that call. When we dress up and put on our armor, we’re ready to fight against temptation, distractions, and everything that tries to keep us from God’s call on our lives. So, let’s make sure we’re dressed up today. Ready to fight the good fight of faith and respond to God’s call!

Thought of the Day: As I respond to God’s call today, I might face distractions and temptations from a spiritual enemy who tries to keep me from God’s best for my life. So, I’m going to dress up and put on the armor God has given me to protect me and help me fight!

For more information regarding this devotional, please follow this link: https://houstonsfirst.org/message/old-clothes-or-new.