Staying Warm (An Analogy)

I was raised in a farmhouse built in the late forties. When I was a teenager, my room was in the very back of the house equipped with a space-heater. I preferred to sleep without the heater. Fortunately, my mother was a quilter, so there was an unlimited supply of quilts. When it was very cold, I slept with a big pile of quilts on me. I felt so warm and cozy under all those quilts. On a rainy winter morning with the rain making music on the metal roof, it was difficult to crawl out and hit the cold floor.

Today, with our warm central-heated homes, some folks may have called our experience survival, but we just called it life.

There are four widely held survival priorities of threes, you may die if, 1) you go three minutes without oxygen, 2) three hours in extreme exposure, 3) three days without water, or 4) three weeks without food. In this analogy our subject is centered on exposure.

Spiritually, we are often exposed to the reality of a cold world. Some of our exposure can be self-inflicted or due to negligence subjecting ourselves to the harshness of this world.

How do we protect ourselves from the cold world? Physically, to protect yourself from adverse exposure you can seek shelter, clothe yourself, and/or produce heat (e.g., build a fire).

Build a fire. We can heat up our inner being by stoking our stoves with the fuel of the Word of God and lighting it with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The scripture plainly says that God within us is a protection against the world.

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NKJV).

Clothe Yourself with the Armor of God. Your best protection from exposure are the garments you are wearing.

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:10-18 NKJV).

Seek Shelter from the Exposure. If it is raining, get under a roof. If it is freezing cold, go inside where it is warm. There is a storm in the world where an evil wind is blowing, the rain is falling, and the flood is rising—seek the refuge of God.

“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah” (Psalms 46:1-3 NKJV).

I would suggest we do all three: build a spiritual fire inside, clothe ourselves with the armor of God, and seek shelter in Jesus.

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

“For You have been a strength to the poor, A strength to the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, A shade from the heat; For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall” (Isaiah 25:4 NKJV).