Which Coat Will You Choose?

I am very delighted to have Jen Miller as my guest blogger today. Jen is the owner of the website The Sara-Ministry.com. I encourage you to click the link at the end of this blog and check out her website and sign up for her devotions. Jen is a prolific writer with a wonderful, caring heart and you will be blessed by reading her devotions. (And forgive me for "tooting my own horn" but I will be a guest blogger on The Sara-Ministry.com sometime in the January/February timeframe. :)  ) This devotion was posted on sara-ministry.com on New Year's Day.

Which Coat Will You Choose?

by Jen Miller

It's the first day of the new year, 2011, and it's winter.

For protection against the harsh elements of this cold world, we each, daily, choose a coat according to our individual temperatures and environments.

Some choose coats made of truly authentic materials. Others choose fakes - the imitations.

Either way, the gift of choice is one we've each been granted by God with each new day.

Some choose to daily wear the authentic coat of love, lined with joy, stitched together with peace. Others choose to daily put on the genuine coat of patience, lined with kindness, stitched together with goodness. Some choose to daily outfit themselves with the honest coat of faithfulness, lined with gentleness, and stitched together with self-control.

Many will daily choose a temporarily shiny or warm-snuggly coat of imitation, a fabrication of God's authentic Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. The fakes lack the quality fibers that otherwise give lifelong endurance and ultimate protection. The imitations quickly reveal their true nature when the harshest storms hit.

Many others daily choose authentic coats of a different nature: their long-time, well-worn, thinning, and oftentimes stinking coat of genuine anger, well-lined with bitterness, stitched strongly with unforgiveness that renders one cold, unprotected, and dying in every season.

Many choose daily to proudly wear, in season and out, their authentic coat of njury, commonly lined with self-entitlement for all they've endured, stitched together with the sturdy threads of self-pity - a coat quickly worn thin.

Countless others will continue to daily choose, no matter the weather, their smelly, ugly coat of self-loathing, lined with guilt, and stitched together with shame - a coat that also quickly wears thin.

Which coat will you choose each day through 2011?

The Ultimate Coat: If one works very purposefully and diligently, she's guaranteed to gain the most invaluable, beautiful coat of all, able to withstand all elements and outlast time. This coat is hand-stitched over time, alongside the Master Tailor. Steadfastly stitched with "strands not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12 NIV)," this coat is woven with all nine of the finest fibers: the "fruit of the Spirit" of God which is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control (Galatians 5:22 NIV).

There are myriad coats at hand that we choose from each day; so, when The King has granted us HIS BEST in which to clothe and protect ourselves - already bought and paid for - why is it that we continue to choose less than His best?

Let's encourage each other to make a renewed commitment to Him to be daily cloaked in His righteousness:

"I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (Isaiah 61:10 NIV)."

One day at a time, one person, one choice, one good deed... we become "transformed by the renewing of [our] mind," and change our world. (Romans 12:2)

Copyright 2011 The Sara Ministry, All Right Reserved

Here's the link to Jen's devotions: subscribe@sara-ministry.com  Again, I want to encourage you to check out Jen's website and sign up for the devotions. You will be truly blessed!!