Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: WEAR / WHERE (03/09/23)
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TITLE: A Loose Garment | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry R A Eissfeldt
03/15/23 -
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Have you ever laid down flat on a bed in order to zip up your jeans just to put a loose top over them so when the time came to breath you could unzip them?
How about slithering into spanks just to take them off half way through the evening (usually after eating) so you could feel your feet again?
Why do we insist on wearing tight clothes?
Is it because of where we’re going? Who we’re seeing? Because we’ll be amongst skinnier, younger, prettier, more fit girls?
Hmmmm. Sounds like the fear of man.
The fear of man is an exaggerated need to be accepted.
What if we anchor our lives in what, and who, God says we are?
According to God we are:
loved, accepted, chosen, forgiven, set apart, His bride, clothed in white, perfect, seated with Him in heavenly places….
Wearing white? Seated where?
Why do we worry and fret about what to wear, who to impress, where to be seen, and how to act in public?
Jesus says in Matthew 6:32 that we act like Gentiles when we worry about such things.
By Gentiles he means people who don’t trust Him.
Francis of Assisi gives us a great visual on how to live dressed in white and seated with Christ.
“Wear the world as a loose garment which touches us in a few places and there lightly.”
Ahhhh a loose garment. A flowy dress. Elastic waist wide leg pants. A swirly skirt.
Can’t you feel the freedom? Did you just take a deep breath?
In a loose garment very little of the body is touching the fabric so very little presses our skin, muscles or bones. Our shape is hidden in the excess fabric.
It’s a picture of how to live hidden in Christ: deep in His love, acceptance, forgiveness and identity. So deep that the world, and what it thinks, doesn’t matter.
Where do we want our focus?
Above, on spiritual things, seated with Christ.
What do we want to wear?
The mind of Christ, the heart of God, the fruit of the Spirit.
Of course this is about as easy as slithering into spanks!
How can we accomplish this? Where do we start?
I heard a wise woman once say, “Your clothes should fit your body not your body should fit your clothes.”
My closet was a whole lot thinner after that revelation!
Paul says the same thing to the Romans concerning how to live:
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 MSG
Prayer:
Father, thank You for creating me exactly how You imagined. I accept my body, personality, gifts, talents and body….oh I already said that.
Help me, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed in my mind as I embrace what and who You say I am.
Help me to see myself clothed in white and seated with You in the heavenly places.
I set my eyes on the things above. I resist the temptation to fit in this world and its priorities.
I offer myself to You and desire to wear You no matter where I am and who I’m with. In my Beloved’s name, Jesus. Amen
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