Put on Love

In Colossians 3, verses 12 through 14, it says "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." For someone like me....someone who struggles with a critical heart...this is a "critical" verse. :) By that I mean, a verse that moves my heart from death to life.

Growing up, I felt like I would never measure up. I was an overachiever whose worst fear was failure. Yet, knowing that I could never succeed fully, I simply sought after as few people as possible knowing what a loser I was. That was faulty thinking. Those were lies that this verse erradicates. I am not a failure or a loser. I am God's chosen daughter, holy and dearly loved. So what kind of response does that warrant from me? This verse commands me to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Things that I cannot clothe myself with apart from Jesus Christ.

I am really struggling right now with this command. I want to obey, but my heart is wicked and stubborn and the flesh is warring against my spirit. So I am begging for the Lord to intervene. I want to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patience. I want to walk closely with the Lord. I want to die to my old ways and not allow the flesh to take over what the spirit owns now. How I wish when we became Christians that this war between spirit and flesh would cease. But the Lord knows how much better it is that we battle instead.

And it goes on to a struggle with forgiveness as well. This struggle probably causes the most angst. For the Lord forgives those that forgive. And how can I call myself a Christian, one who has received a full and undeserved pardon for every evil and tresspass I have ever committed and yet, be one that withholds grace from another? Simply put, I cannot.

So I am praying that my thoughts on this verse...my feeble willingness to think this truth over the lies of the past...will bring forth actions that speak these characteristics of Christ. And I pray that over time, the Lord would mold my heart to follow after these things. I pray the Lord would help me to no longer be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. That I would truly indeed - put on love!