wear this instead, friend

to be honest, we all focus on what we wear. whether it’s the first day of school, your first date with your boo, or an event where you get to dress up, we all put an emphasis on what we wear and how we appear. if you know me, then you know i love fashion and i love to get dressed up, and if you don’t know me then you just learned a little fun fact. but i feel like we all focus on what we wear because of the impressions we want to leave, or because we want to feel good about ourselves. it’s always nice to hear someone compliment your ‘style’, but the clothes we put on and takeoff daily are not who we are, they are just ways for us to express ourselves.

what if I told you there was clothes you put on and wear that people can’t see but they get your ‘style’. are you clothing yourself in what culture tells you to wear? or are you clothing yourself in what God is telling you to wear? These are clothes that we can’t see others wear, but we get their ‘vibe’, we get their ‘style’.

this is much more important than the physical clothes, those don’t define who we are - these do.

culture tells us it’s all about me, me, me. the clothes that we wear when we listen to culture look like selfishness, pridefulness, comparison, jealousy, hatred, arrogance, impatience and the list can keep going on. but are these the clothes we want to wear? are these the clothes we want to define us?

God tells us that it’s not about us, it's about dying to ourselves and we can see this in what He wants us to wear. God calls us to clothe ourselves in His Son ‘for as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ’ (Galatians 3:27). what does it look like to clothe yourself in Christ? it looks like putting on selflessness, humility, compassion, kindness, meekness, patience and God tells us above all of these put on love (Colossians 3:12-14).

there is a clear difference in what culture finds attractive and what God finds attractive, yet too many of us Christians are saying ‘Lord, Lord’ and clothing ourselves with culture. we will go to school, or work, and put on our jealousy shirt and our comparison jeans and our favorite pair of prideful shoes and not even realize what we are doing. these clothes are easy to put on when we are not guarding our heart, and we can quickly see ourselves conforming to culture.

but God.

but God says to us ‘do not be conformed to this world…’ (Romans 12:2).

but God tells us ‘do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of my Father is not in him’ (1 John 2:15).

we are called to be set apart, we are called not to conform to this world, we are called to be the light of the world. culture offers us none of these – instead, it tells you to conform to society and strive for personal success.

there is so much in store for you.

what are cultures' clothes costing you? 

lay your ego aside, pick up your cross and wear what God is calling you to wear. it may be hard, but it is well worth it. these clothes are not costing a thing – instead they are saving you a seat at your Heavenly Father’s table. think about what you want to start wearing – throw aside the dirty and tattered clothes that culture has put on you and wear this instead, friend.

-n0tbychance