Hangers or Containers?

All too often I wear my faith as a list of do's and don't's. Christians do this, Christians don't do that. Christians believe this, Christians don't believe that. Christians stand for this, and against that.

I teach my kids, "We don't (talk like this, walk like this, dress like this, go here, go there) because we're Christians.

My faith hangs on me and clings to me and covers me up. Only problem is, when you wear your faith...what stops you from slipping out of it now and again? Pulling on those old comfy clothes of compromise, that suit of sinfulness, that party outfit that screams "ready and willing to ____"?

No, we aren't supposed to be faith hangers.

We're supposed to be faith containers.

God's spirit dwells inside of us. He empowers us to walk in the light of His Word and to live out what we take in. We're to let His love and His light fill every dark place in our hearts, and to let it transform us from the inside out.

When we do this, our flaws won't be hidden anymore. We will be exposed, and vulnerable.

But the neat thing about being a container of our faith in Him is this: He leaks out through the flaws, the cracks, the nicks...the areas where we are weak is where He is best able to shine.

When it's inside us, flooding out of us, THEN we wear our faith like a second skin. It's not something we can take off at will, or when the whim to sin strikes us. It becomes permanent, a part of who we are.

Then it doesn't matter what we look like on the outside...the light of Jesus in us blinds others to our shortcomings, and we simply look more and more like Him. (I'm not talking about sin--that's an entirely different matter).

So ask yourself--am I a faith hanger, or a faith container? Do I wear it like a cloak of disguise, do I take it off and put it on as it suits me? Or am I allowing God to fill me with His spirit and His truth and His power, so full that it spills out and over and through the cracks in my being?

The choice is ours to make.

Praying I'm leaking Jesus all over the place, and praying the same for you!

Deena