What are YOU Wearing Today?

I have mentioned on numerous occasions of how my wife and I did our best throughout her sickness, to hold fast to the Biblical training and principles that we had learned and lived during the previous years of our time together… from our dating days and throughout our marriage.  And in many ways, I feel like I am going through the same thing today.  The circumstances have changed, the specific subject matter of the tests and trials are different… but the battle is the same

Have any of you ever felt that way in your lives?  What do you do in those cycles of your daily existence?  Do you have a contingency plan that you employ when the seemingly old, but yet strangely new challenges come your way?  Well, I do!  For I find that the old tried and true methods of my faith ring as loud and stand as formidable today as they did in my past!

When Piper passed away back in September of 2018, I kept hearing the command to “CONTINUE” repeatedly in my prayers for the rest of that year and into the next… and lately it has been coming up once again, as that still-small voice* on the inside of me.

Back then, I saw it as a clear directive of the Lord for me to keep moving forward in life.  To trust Him for the heartache, pain and emotion of the moment and to keep seeking His best, as I believed (and still do) that He continues to have a plan for me to accomplish in this earthly life.

So, as He has begun to preview His steps for me to follow in His current plans for me, I have had to push through different obstructions from both the inside of me as well as external physical situations that act to hinder my forward progress.  And what have I done to see myself through to success you might ask?  Well, I have chosen to follow the advice of a Biblical friend whose entire adult life makes mine look like a fun-filled, worry free, walk in the park!

In 2 Timothy 1:13, the Apostle Paul told his discouraged protégé Timothy in a time of great persecution to,

“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”  (KJV) 

In telling Timothy to “HOLD FAST,” the seasoned veteran of personal persecution for his faith… who was writing what is generally agreed to be the last letter he ever wrote from a dungeon in Rome, as he waited for his impending death… Paul was encouraging him to CONTINUE on with what he had known first from his childhood through the faith of his grandmother and mother,** and then under the mentorship of Paul himself.

To “HOLD FAST” meant for Timothy to “take as a personal possession” the FORM of the SOUND WORDS that he had repeatedly heard from Paul and “to own them in the sense of wearing them”*** as one would wear a tailored suit.  To take the Gospel truths that he had not only heard but also seen demonstrated through the ministry of Paul, personalize them and then wear them as a daily part of who he was.

As I studied this truth this morning, I was also reminded of something else that Paul said about the benefits of wearing our faith, in Ephesians 6:10-11.  Here he closed this letter by summing up his thoughts and declaring,

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (KJV)

I have often times heard it said that it is better to be over-dressed than under-dressed in most of the occasions of life and it would seem from these words, that Paul would have whole-heartedly agreed!  For when we are dressed in the armor of God, we not only stand and withstand in the power (or dominion) of His might but are also well able to successfully stand against the schemes, travesty**** and trickery of the devil!

Hummmm… What more can I say?  His advice CONTINUES to work for me… How about you?

Have a great rest of the week, and as you do… Keep EXPECTING God’s best in your life!

 

*See: I Kings 19:11-12 KJV

**2 Timothy 1:5

***Strong’s and Thayer’s

****A false, absurd or distorted representation of something or someone (Dictionary.com)