It’s truly amazing how God reveals His wisdom to us.  How when reading His Word he’ll sometimes un-expectantly reveal how it should be applied in our lives.  This is one such verse with just one example of its application.  This is what sanctification is all about – the process of being made or becoming holy; allowing God to cut out the unrighteousness in our lives so we can be “set apart” for a special purpose.

Often the process of sanctification can be difficult.  It will always go against what this culture says is okay, the sin has most likely been apart of our lives for a long time and there tends to be rebellion to even the notion of giving it up or changing our ways.  We often come up with excuses and reasons why we don’t have to change but the bottom line is who are we living for?  Are we living for ourselves or for Jesus?

I’ll be totally honest when God reveals some thing in my life that needs sanctifying the first reaction I usually have is rebellion.  It’s that instant where you suddenly stand straighter because you feel someone has just taken a shot at you and your defenses come up in full force.

My mom is my Christian mentor and at times when I ask her questions I have this need to argue with her when she doesn’t agree.  Through my own ongoing process of sanctification I have realized that when my defenses come up and feelings of aggression, of wanting to argue, come up that I need to step back.  I need to talk to God about it, dig into His word and ask for forgiveness for my rebellion.

God is never wrong therefore it’s how I’m seeing the world that is wrong.  I need to see the world and my life through the Bible and not the worlds.  It’s about perspective.  It’s about how I want to live my life.  It’s about the battle that’s raging around us 24/7 and which side do I want to take.  There’s no middle ground, either I chose God’s side or by default I’m on satans.

So at first what God is sanctifying you of can seem painful and hard but believe me – once you give it up to God the freedom you’ll feel after is priceless!

John 8:32
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

God revealed this to me some time ago so I can’t remember how it came about but it’s like how when you first notice a particular sticker on a car and then suddenly you see that sticker everywhere all the time.  Well, it’s like that and I have two girls currently 9 and 7 years of age and have spoken quite a bit about this topic with them so I decided to write this post as well.

Matthew 18:7 tells us
How terrible it will be for anyone who causes others to sin.  Temptation to do wrong is inevitable, but how terrible it will be for the person who does the tempting.

In regards to the above verse I want to address how we dress.  I also want to point out that this is not exclusive to women!

Jesus tells us that to even look at another person (that is not your spouse) with lust in your eyes is the same as committing adultery (Matthew 5:27-30).  Jesus evens goes on to say that if your eye or any part of your body causes you to sin that you should cut it off because it’s better to lose one part of your body then for your whole body to go to hell.  Jesus isn’t mincing words and is quite serious about this.

So Jesus is telling us it’s a sin to look at anyone (other than your spouse) is a sexual way.  In the above verse from Matthew it tells us that anyone who tempts someone else to sin; well there’s going to be really bad consequences.

We’ve all heard the excuses for why people dress the way they do:

• I can wear what I want
• It’s legal
• I can’t stop what other people think
• It makes me feel good about myself
• Everyone else is wearing it

We live in a culture where it’s “me” orientated and the blame is always shifted to others.  We are a culture that does not accept responsibility for our actions.  But God has something else to say about it…

Galatians 6:5
For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

So I ask that you examine what you're wearing.  Are you purposely wearing clothing designed to attract the eye or maybe a certain body feature? Is what you’re wearing glorying God?  How do others perceive you based on what you’re wearing?  Are you tempting others to look at you in a sexual way (aka leading them to sin against God)?

I’m not saying we can’t dress nice but there is a difference between looking pretty/handsome and looking sexy.  If you dress appropriately and someone still looks at you in an inappropriate way well then it’s on them and you will be found “not guilty.”  But there’s no more shifting of blame; we need to take responsibility for our own conduct.

As I mentioned before I’m a mother of two girls and even in the cartoons the characters are wearing midriff shirts and short shorts or skirts.  I believe to be good role models we lead by example.  We need to teach our children and ourselves that self-worth comes from God and not the inappropriate attention they/we get by exposing our bodies.  In a world where our bodies have little value except what pleasures it gives to others we need to adhere to God’s standards to be set apart for holiness.  We are to lead others to Jesus not lead them to sin!

Your Sister in Christ,

Angela

I bless you with the ability to hear God’s Word and apply it to your life.  That through sanctification you become holy and make disciples leading none to sin.