True Identity Ministries Blog

God has laid something on my heart and I'm really excited about where it will lead. I was reading Colossians 3 and had an attraction to v.12-14,

"Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." (ESV)

The NIV says to "clothe yourselves." There is this idea, this picture of getting dressed. Everyday when you change clothes, you choose what to wear and proceed to put it on. It's a decision and an action.

The same implication is being attached to these characteristics described in the verses. I believe Paul is saying that we must make the decision to put on the Christian virtues. But first He calls us to take off the old (v. 5-10). To take off the old clothes, fitting of the old life, and to put on the new clothes, fitting of your new life in Christ! A new self created after the likeness of God (Ephesians 4.24)!

Back to the new. Here is where the action takes place. To be honest, I struggle with many of these characteristics. Therefore, I want to exercise putting on each of these garments. I will start with compassion. I have wrote out what compassion means, along with a verse, that I will keep with me to reference often.

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{Example}

COMPASSION: A feeling of deep sympathy for another, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. It's Action.

"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepard. So he began teaching them many things." Mark 6.34

He saw. He acted. That's compassion

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I will then earnestly seek out opportunities to show compassion. I want to learn what it looks like and how I can make that a part of me. So much so that it would eventually be natural.

Today I choose to put on compassion. I will pray and allow God to transform me from the inside out. When I sense I have come to grasp what compassion really means and looks like, when I have practiced it and feel it has taken hold of me, then I will move on to kindness. And from kindness to humility. And so on.

My prayer is that as God works, you would be inspired to clothe yourselves in the new self Paul describes in Colossians 3. It's necessary. In fact, in Matthew 22 (v.11-14), Jesus tells a parable about a man not allowed into the wedding celebration because he didn't have a wedding garment on. The man was then cast into outer darkness. Friends, it is very important that we walk in the new garments created for us in the likeness of God. Without them, we will not be allowed to enter Heaven.

Please allow a passage like that to encourage you to live in all that God has created for you! If anything, it should inspire you to wake up each morning, and to clothe yourself in the virtues mentioned in the beginning.

I would really enjoy hearing your thoughts on this. And I would really like to hear what God may be doing in your life as you decide to put on the new self!