Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 6

"... let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light" ~ Romans 13:12b

The redemption of Jesus Christ is as complete as "complete." When a thing is complete it is as final as when a thing is perfect. October apple is just as complete and perfect in May when it is in bloom, as in October when it is harvested. We grow, but complete growth has already been provided for us. We learn more and still more about how to take advantage of the work of Calvary, about how to make use of the life Christ laid down for us to use. But Calvary was complete, and the life has already been laid down. I believe stressing the importance of choosing is merely being realistic. All the electrical power we now use was available and just as potent during all the ages before man learned how to harness it. So, we definitely must, by faith, make a direct move to make use of this complete redemption by casting off the works of darkness. God has all the power available to break a habit, but you will never know that power unless you choose to "cast off" that habit under the power of God. You are not doing it on your own power. You are choosing to take what God so freely offers. We must "cast off the works of darkness." And once again Paul warns us in the same sentence: "... let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and (then) let us put on the armour of light." Casting off the works of darkness is all right to a degree. But when they are cast off, we are only vulnerable to more danger until we have put on the armour of light. As one friend of mine wrote in a letter, we are not to carry the helmet under our arm.

"Put on the whole armour."