The Joy of
Socks
I
love cute socks! I have socks for almost
every holiday, but I haven’t seen a Groundhog’s Day sock yet. I have striped socks, polka-dot socks, Cat
socks, dog socks, zebra socks…well’ you get the picture, as I said, I love
socks! I mean why wear just plain white
socks when you can wear cute colorful socks.
This
past December, as I was trying to decide which pair of Christmas socks I would
wear that day, I noticed that I didn’t have any socks with the real meaning of
Christmas. I had Santa, reindeer, polar
bears, penguins, packages, trees, holly, and elves, but no true Christmas
socks. And I thought, I need to design and sell Christian socks!
A
“zabillion” ideas exploded in my brain at once.
I could call the line “Soul Mates” and sell them in Christian
bookstores. Some would have the fish
symbol or crosses. I could put bible
verses on some like, “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and all thy
strength.” I’d put hearts on those for
Valentine’s Day. I could make camo socks
and put “March on, my soul; be
strong!” Judges 5:21 “ I will sing and make music with all my soul.” Ps. Music notes and instruments would be on
those. I would make wonderful Easter and
Christmas socks, but then I thought, “Would it be sacrilegious to stuff baby
Jesus in a smelly tennis shoe?” All my
plans came to a screeching halt!
As I sat in my bare feet thinking about that, the
Lord brought this scripture to mind,
“Stand therefore having… your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace;” Ephesians 6:14-15. And that
is what led me to write this devotional.
Little did I know that this would be used on Memorial Day, it fits so
well. See how God works.
Sometime back in the 80’s I lead a Bible study on
Ephesians 6 and since then it has become one of my favorite scripture passages.
The Armor of
God
10 Finally, be
strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand
against the devil’s schemes. 12 For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of
evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done
everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm
then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of
righteousness in place, 15 and with
your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the
evil one. 17 Take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Today
I want to talk about verse 15, ““Stand therefore having… your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace;”.
When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he was in prison and very
familiar with the footwear of the Roman soldier, on their leather sandals they
fastened hobnails to help give them firm footing. Every soldier knows that if he is having
problems with his feet, he will not be able to fight well. Likewise, Christians
need firm footing that comes from the Gospel of peace to be able to keep their
balance while fighting Satan.
The
death, burial, resurrection of Christ, and the salvation He offers us is the
Gospel of peace that we stand on. That
is our firm foundation. We are told to be steadfast, unmovable, and to keep
working for the Lord. Now when it comes
to serving the Lord, we should always be on the move, flexible and ready to
share the Gospel. But we must stand firm
in our faith; the Gospel of peace is never changing.
We
are all sinners, but the good news is that we don’t have to stay that way. The world needs to know this and we’re
supposed to tell them. As Christian
soldiers we have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of
peace. When we take our stand on the Gospel,
God gives us exactly what we need to hold our ground and defeat the enemy. God
gives us stability. Unfortunately many
Christians today are unstable. Paul
said, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind
of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful
scheming.”Eph.4:14
Unstable
Christians are not grounded in the word of God and are easily led astray by
faults teachings. A well-grounded understanding of God’s word gives you
stability so that your faith may not be shaken.
There are a lot of “Tumble weeds” out there, people running from one teaching
to another. The church of the “What’s happening now” is on the rise. If you know God’s word, you will know the
truth and will be able to stand.
No
soldier would ever think of entering the battle without his shoes, they protect
his feet and give him stability and mobility.
Christians should wear the shoes of peace so that wherever we go we
are firmly standing on the gospel. Then
when other people try to blow our faith off course, we will have the stability
to stand firm.
Not
only do the shoes of the Gospel of peace give you stability they also give you
balance. A soldier doesn’t just wear one
shoe into battle, he wears both. If he
didn’t he could easily lose his balance.
In order to be balanced, Christians need a thorough understanding of all
the Bible’s doctrines, teachings, and commands.
We’re not to pick and choose the things we like and ignore the
rest. When we are resting firmly on the
truths of the Gospel, we will have balance and stability in our Christian
lives.
Our
shoes also give us mobility. Even the
best equipped soldier will likely be killed if he stands in one place to
long. He needs to be able to move and
respond to the attack of the enemy. One
of the problems of many churches today is that they are standing still. One of the things that hinders the work of
God today, is the unwillingness of many Christians to change. I’m not talking about changing the Gospel,
but to change our tactics. Satan is
always changing his approaches and adjusts his tactics, we need to be mobile when
we respond to these challenges or we may get trampled underfoot.
When
we take our stand on the Gospel of peace, God not only gives us stability,
balance, and mobility, but he also gives us opportunity for ministry. When soldiers go to war, they know what their
fighting for and as believers we need to keep our goal in mind. Our goal is not to merely stand our ground
and fight. We must also move forward and
spread the Gospel. If we keep our shoes
of peace on continually, we will be ready when the opportunity to witness comes.
We
are soldiers of peace and the Devil is our adversary. If you think there is not a war going on for
the lives and souls of all mankind, you are misguided. We are at war and the soldier who will be
victorious on the battlefield is the one who is stable and balanced, who has
good mobility and uses every opportunity to share the good news of the Gospel
of peace. Are you that kind of a
soldier?
