The fall is my favorite time of year. The cool nights, the changing colors of the leaves, the first cup of hot chocolate or apple cider. It’s just great. As a kid, I especially enjoyed the fall because of two things: candy and costumes. The fall meant it was time to put on my costume and get all dressed up because I had candy to get and I was determined to get more each year than I did the last. For one night only I could be whoever or whatever I wanted to be. I could let my imagination fly. The sky’s the limit. I still remember my ninja turtle costume and how terrible it smelled inside, but that didn’t matter because I felt like the best ninja turtle that there had ever been. It was so much fun!
Pretending and getting dressed up each fall is a lot of fun and I especially enjoy watching my kids and seeing how excited they get, but what happens when our religion, our Christianity, becomes fake and we find ourselves just pretending and dressing it up.
Are we being true to God? Are we being true to ourselves? We can often times trick ourselves into thinking that we are living the way God wants us to live when we know deep down, we are really just living for ourselves. The truth is, we are not fooling anybody. We are definitely not fooling God. God knows us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows us so well that He not only knows what we need, Matthew 6:25-34, but He even knows the number of hairs on our head, Matthew 10:27-31. God knows our struggles. He knows of our sins. In fact, He showed His love for us by sending Jesus to die for our sins. (John 3:16).
I think we all have to look deep inside and ask ourselves if we are really living for God or if we are just pretending. Is it truly profitable to get all dressed up and dress the part but not live it out? Absolutely not! That is just like claiming to have faith but not having the works to back it up. (James 2:14-26). Faith is based on truth. We know He is true and what He told us to do is true, but are we truly living for Him? Do we truly have faith?
Our faith needs to be something that we live out in truth, no faking and no pretending. We cannot just get “dressed up” like we do each fall. We have to truly live for Him. We also have to make sure that we stand up for the truth. False teachers around the world love to dress up their words and present them as truth. Their words are coming from wolves in sheep’s clothing, Matthew 7:15, and they are very dangerous. As Christians we need to make sure that the way we are living is faithful and true. We also need to make sure we are standing up and boldly proclaiming the truth in a world filled with false teachers.
I don’t know about you, but dressing up in the fall of the year can be a lot of fun. It’s fun to pretend and get all dressed up. But as Christians let’s leave the pretending and dressing up out of our Christianity. Let’s truly live for Him.
Derek Broome