It was a gorgeous Saturday morning and I was just getting ready to meet one of my girlfriends downtown for lunch. I hadn’t seen her in months and although I was excited to spend time with her, I couldn’t help but feel in adequate in my outfit. I didn’t know what to wear. My jeans seemed too tight or too old and nothing I had felt cute. My friend would look absolutely amazing and so well put together as she always did. I knew I’d love everything she had on from brand new hair style down to her hot stilettos. Halfway through our lunch when I couldn’t take it anymore I said, “Why do you always look so cute? It’s not fair! Can you be my personal shopper?” She just laughed and told me some of her shopping secrets which I did my best to take note of. On the way home from our time together, spent from hours of window shopping and still feeling insecure in my personal “look,” God spoke to me. He said before you go and dress yourself in the things of the world, my daughter, dress yourself in a true understanding of your value and worth in me. What you put on is not who you are, “you are my child.” So clothe yourself in the love and freedom and salvation of Christ. For you were bought with the most precious price.
There are so many outfits and so many things in the world you can put on. They can evoke so many feelings, fleeting feelings that temporarily hide the frail inadequacies within our hearts which we cannot fill ourselves. You can put on the role of the top student in your class, that of the “hottest” girl, the funnest girl at the party, the popular guy’s girlfriend, you can put on any outfit…but until you put on and walk in the truth that you are the wonderfully made, loved-beyond measure daughter of God and let this truth satiate every ounce of your being, you will never be a “hard to find woman”. And it is fine if you like clothes and pretty things, but remember that pretty things are all they are, they are man made fabrications of the beauty that can only be of God. God says this, come into my store, come into my Kingdom where everything is free because it has been bought by the blood of Jesus. Come into my house and put on the wardrobe you will wear into eternity.
It is easy in this world to clothe ourselves with ungodliness. To dress our fragile selves in desirable roles, in lofty achievements, in fashionable clothes and in coveted appearances. But a woman of God, a “hard to find woman” is clothed in strength and dignity – strength that is provided by her Creator and dignity that comes only from a passionate relationship with Christ. Her strength and dignity is in something so much bigger than herself.
I challenge you to ask yourself what you are tempted to “clothe” yourself in each morning. What are you tempted to put on? Is it a desire to please everyone you encounter even if it means compromising who are you? Do you wake up and want to put on perfection? Or do you wake up and ready to clothe yourself in arrogance and in a “I’m better than you attitude.” Really, whatever it is we try to clothe ourselves in other than our identity in Christ is a mask, a temporary cover for the needs, hurts and desires only God can fulfill.
