The Apostle Paul wrote letters to the churches throughout Asia Minor. The one we’re looking at today was written to the believers at Colossae. In the portion of his letter we now call chapter 3, Paul is explaining how believers should live this new life they’ve chosen.

He penned, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”

First, let’s bask in those beautiful words, “God chose you.” God looked out across time and decided you were to be His. His child and His representative to the world, displaying His love, mercy, and grace. The Creator of the universe and everything in it chose Y-O-U. Why?
Because He wanted to.

Rest right there for a moment. You are a priceless treasure to God.

After that, Paul says we’re to clothe ourselves in tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Whew! How hard is that???

I mean, I can be kind, but sometimes I’m not. I can be compassionate, but there are times I choose differently. I can be humble and gentle and have patience, but there are times I can’t be described in those terms.

Still, Paul said I’m to put on behavior marked by these traits. Feels like chains being added, doesn’t it?

Hold up a minute. Let’s look at another letter Paul wrote to another church, this time in Galatia. To them he talked about what shows up when we let the Spirit of God control our hearts and lives. The behaviors of a Spirit-controlled life are LOVE, joy, peace, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, goodness, faithfulness, GENTLENESS, and SELF-CONTROL.

So, let’s work this out.
• I’m supposed to clothe myself in compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, and patience.
• If I let the Spirit control me I will exhibit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Thus, if I let the Spirit have control of me, I will be clothed in the traits Paul says are what believers should display.

Do you get that? There are NO CHAINS here! The only thing required is surrender.

We have only to let go of the reins of our life and let God be God. We must remove ourselves from the throne, recognizing that we are not God and we don’t reign over ourselves or anyone else.

The Spirit of God lives in every believer, but too often we relegate Him to a deep dark closet and only allow Him out at church.

It’s time to change that.

#LifeChange

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