Cover Up

I drove around the neighborhood today looking at all the yard decorations.  This picture is a typical view that one sees here in the south. Nope, it is not Christmas with beautiful tree lights and ornaments nor is it Halloween where we dress up our shrubs and trees and flowers.  It is just a typical day in the south where we have unexpected cold or “extreme weather temperatures” that are not so called “normal” for this part of the country.  I personally think  it hilarious to see yards full of unusually shaped shrubs dressed in colorful blankets.  It’s just that time of year.

I often tell my children, even my children that are adults that they too have too cover up each day, not only by wearing modest clothing so they don’t tempt the eye of the beholder, but to wear their “Armor of God” each and every day.  If they don’t have their armor on each day they become vulnerable to temptation. 

Jesus was in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights without food.  The idea of me being in my house for 40 days and 40 nights with food is unimaginable and my house is certainly not a desert.  But, in those 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus relied on God for strength and guidance.  He only served God.

“The scripture says, ‘human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’” Matthew 4:4

I have three older children that can read the bible and discern what is being read however, I have a little girl that can read the bible, but needs help in understanding the words.  She needs her armor just as much as my older ones and they need God’s armor every day to protect them against Satan’s tricks. We have to cover up not just in the winter to keep us warm, but in the summer, spring and fall too.  We have to constantly be covered with God’s armor to resist temptation. 

In the prayer that the Lord’s taught us to pray, he says  “Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One.” Matthew 6:13   We should make temptation a constant focus in prayer, each and every day as God instructed us in the Lord’s Prayer.  By praying the Lord’s prayer we are asking God to keep us safe from the Evil One.

When under attack by the tempter, Jesus relied on the Word of God to resist his adversary.

We don’t have to wear an armor of steel or some form of metal, but we do have to wear God’s word.

The people who cover their plants from harsh weather are protecting them from a hard freeze, ultimately from the death of a freeze.  We cover our hearts and souls with God’s word so our hearts and souls don’t die from the cold reality of temptation.  

We can choose to cover up or go under cover……