"Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24)
Recently I have been having a lot of trouble getting up on time. When I oversleep, it has a pretty negative effect on my entire day. Usually it means I will either not spend time in the Bible and in prayer -- or at least not quality time. If I do spend the time, then it means I'm late to work, which takes away time "doing school" with the kids. To my dismay, even at my seasoned age, I found myself in the habit over oversleeping and seemingly powerless to break the habit. I mentioned this struggle to a good friend when we were having coffee Monday. To my surprise, she was having the same problem. So, in keeping with true friendship, we agreed to help each other and are now making that 4:00 am "accountability call". I can't say I am enjoying dragging my weary bones out of bed that early again, but certainly I am enjoying the benefits of reestablishing that habit.
I've been studying Ephesians 4 this week. Today I spent some time just meditating on verse 24. The terminology Paul uses, "put on the new man", implies effort. When we put on clothes in the morning, we have to put at least a bit of effort into that process. It requires purposeful thought and physical action. We may not always enjoy the effort, and at times expend minimal effort, but we HAVE to put forth some effort, or settle for the alternative of not getting dressed at all (which is an unsettling thought!).
I have to admit, most days I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what I am going to wear. I am a casual person unless the day's activities require otherwise. But, spiritually each day does require more than just casual dressing. I am called to be an ambassador of Christ each day, and the dress code is pretty specific. This "new man" is created in righteousness and holiness, just like God is righteous and holy. These are not character qualities that come naturally to the human race! In fact, if you read verse 22 of Ephesian 4, before we can think about putting on this new man, we have to "put off" the old man -- the one that is not righteous and holy; the one we were before we were in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:17, says "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." This new man becomes part of our spiritual wardrobe the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Unfortunately, as long as we have this flesh to contend with, the old man is also still part of our wardrobe (see Romans 7:14-25). We are commanded, though, to reckon that old man as dead (Romans 6:11-13). So, part of my daily effort is to ignore that old, smelly outfit hanging in my spiritual closet and make the choice to put on the new duds each day. Thus, the 4:00 am wake-up call. That new man really is much more pleasant (for everyone) and definitely worth the effort!
