What's your favorite brand of clothes to wear? There are thousands upon thousands of different logos and embroidered names that are publicized around the world daily. All of them strenuously striving to catch your eye with their brand. Various colors and styles all carrying the elusive promise that these clothes will complete the statement of who we are as individuals. We've all been guilty at some point in our lives of believing that the clothes make the man or the woman. However, it's important in life that we always reference the word of God into our day to day so we can mark out a straight path for our feet.
Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Here we see that God has something to say about how we clothe ourselves. But it's important to understand the context of the verse. Leading up to this verse Paul brings up the fundamentals of our spirit being regenerated. He reminds us that our old self was put to death on the cross of Christ, and that a new self was raised to life within us, just as Christ was raised from the dead. Because of this truth, he instructs us to put to death all the ways of the old self and encourages us to engage as the new self.
We're told to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Now this could easily be over looked as “more rules from the Bible”, but the truth is that God doesn't expect you to be those things. He knows that you never could be, at least with the right motive. That's why Jesus had to come and die for us so that the slate could be wiped clean for the purpose of us receiving His life in the form of the Holy Spirit. Those things mentioned above are Holy Spirit brands. When we engage with the Holy Spirit inside of us and stand on God’s word as the truth, then we begin to realize that we have the power of choice in our lives today to be someone completely different than we have ever been before.
The more we choose to believe that God has empowered our spirit with His Spirit, the more we desire and are capable of carrying out things such as humility, compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience. Why are these things important? Take a look at the broken world around you. It desperately needs to see and feel these so that glory can be brought to God. Which brings up the most important brand of the Holy Spirit – love! Colossians 3:14 says, “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity”. Love is the glue that holds everything together and the only way we can truly love everyone while showing compassion and gentleness is if we are tapping into the Holy Spirit daily and allowing Him to expose the hardened areas of our hearts that we've kept guarded for so long. When we let Him cut on us in those areas we can find a release and a freedom that will allow us to be God to a world that desperately needs Him. So think about that before you walk out the door today. What will you choose to put on?
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