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Let me begin by reading the passage from Colossians 3, verses 12-15.
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 one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
These are the garments we should be wearing as Christians: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, peace, thankfulness, and love. And as I said in part one, these are the fruit of the Spirit of God—evidence of God’s Spirit in you.
Here’s the good news about these garments we are to put on—these garments are intended for every believer; they are within your grasp, and they look wonderful on all of us. But the big question is, how do we really put on these beautiful garments? It makes a nice talk, but how does it translate into reality in our lives?
The first thing is to understand that putting on these garments is not an act of our emotions; it is an act of our will. So often in our Christian walk, we want all the feelings before we exercise faith. We want to feel gentle and humble and peaceful and thankful. And if our feelings aren’t working so good on a particular day, then we assume we just can’t wear those garments that day, because we don’t feel them. The sooner we learn that feelings cannot be trusted and are not a barometer of our spiritual temperature, the sooner we’ll be able to take these garments and wear them. And that’s done by faith, not by feelings.
When you know you’re facing a day that will require, for instance, a great deal of patience, keep repeating that you will put on patience for that day. Put it on by faith, regardless of whether you feel patient or not. Your feelings will eventually give up and come along with your will, but never mind them. Will to do God’s will. He will supply the patience when you need it if you don’t allow your emotions to destroy your faith.
You wear these garments by faith, just as you accepted God’s gift of eternal life by faith. The act of your will is your part; God does the rest.
Secondly, wearing this wardrobe is not a function of our personalities. Many of these inner garments probably do not come naturally to your personality. But that does not keep you from wearing all of them.
I think that we often let ourselves off the hook by saying, “Well, that’s just the way I am. I can’t be anyone else; I have to be myself.” We’ve been fed this current philosophy of “be your own person” so much that we use that idea to excuse ourselves from whatever we feel doesn’t “fit” us.
Well, I can’t see where God makes any exceptions for personality. He has all the garments you can ever need, and he’s ready to impart them to you. Don’t let your personality or “the way you are” be an excuse for not making God’s best dressed list. It is possible—through Christ—for all believers to wear this entire wardrobe.
Maybe one reason you haven’t put on too many of these garments is that there just isn’t any room in your closet. Could it be your closet is cluttered with all kinds of outdated, ugly clothes? In the same third chapter of Colossians, we find a list of clothes we should “put off,” and that list includes anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, and lying (vs. 8).
Do you have any of these ugly clothes in your closet? If so, they are taking up so much room and occupying so much of your time and thoughts that you’re left with little room for the beautiful clothes you need to wear. Are you harboring anger that you refuse to deal with? Anger plus resentment equals wrath. Wearing wrath these days? I can promise you that it is unbecoming. Malice is the desire to see others suffer—wishing bad things to happen to other people. I hope you don’t have malice in your closet, because it is truly overpowering. And then, what comes out of your mouth? Slander, abusive speech, or lying? There is no place in God’s wardrobe for this kind of language or speech.
In Isaiah 61:3 God says he will give us beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. What an incredible offer this is from our heavenly Father! He wants to exchange all those heavy, ugly, dirty clothes now hanging in your inner closet and in return give you beauty and joy and a garment of praise.
That, it seems to me, is an offer too good to refuse! The only thing required is that you be willing to exchange your present unsightly wardrobe for these new garments. You must relinquish the control of your life to the heavenly Father and be willing to take off your present unattractive clothes, hand them over to him, and accept in exchange these beautiful inner garments that he desires to give you.
If you’re going to possess this special wardrobe, you’ll need to prepare a special place for them. It is the closet of prayer, to which Jesus referred when he was teaching his disciples how to pray. May I say quite candidly that you will wear these garments in direct proportion to the quality of your prayer life. Without a “prayer closet,” you’ll find these garments very difficult to keep. And that prayer closet includes God talking to us through his Word, as well as our petitions to him.
If you really want to be a well-dressed Christian and wear all these clothes at once (you won’t be overdressed!), I have a suggestion to help you. Every morning as you get dressed, as you put on your blouse and skirt, your shirt and pants, your jacket and coat, talk to the Lord. You could say something like this: “Lord, while I’m putting on these necessary outer garments, I want you to know that I desire to be your best dressed person. I want to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, peace, thankfulness, tolerance, and love.”
Make a list and tack it on your closet door as a reminder. Memorize the list. And repeat to God every day, using your dressing time as a reminder that you desire to wear these beautiful clothes he has provided. By faith, as you put on your outer garments, you are at the same time putting on these inner clothes.
One of Satan’s best methods to defeat us is forgetfulness. He’ll try to erase your memory and keep you from thinking about God’s inner wardrobe. If you don’t find a method to remind yourself, you’ll be surprised how other things will crowd your mind, and the days will be over before you’ve remembered what you should be wearing. You’ll find that you’ve gone the whole day without the proper clothes. This little routine will help you remember.
After hearing me speak about this, a friend of mine literally took my advice and taped this list of inner garments to her mirror. She told me it was a great help to her, reminding her daily of the most important clothes she should put on. Why don’t you try putting it on your mirror? See if it helps.
In James 1:23-26, we read that a person who simply hears and does nothing about what he or she hears is like a person catching the reflection of his or her own face in a mirror. She sees herself, it is true, but she goes on with whatever she was doing, without the slightest recollection of what sort of person she saw in the mirror.
After we dress each day, the last thing we do is check the mirror—right? To look in the mirror and discover a serious problem with our clothes and then do nothing about the problem is rather ridiculous. The whole purpose in looking in the mirror is to remedy any problem before we go out to face the world.
Colossians 3 is God’s mirror. It shows us what we should wear every day. So, if you look in that mirror regularly, you’ll recognize what garments are missing in your wardrobe. You’ll see some of the inner garments you’ve been wearing are pretty drab and quite heavy. Don’t walk away from God’s mirror without doing something about what you saw. The Bible tells us that to those who know to do good and do it not, to them it is sin.
What happens when you start to take seriously this idea of putting on God’s beautiful clothes on a daily basis? This was the handle God gave me on this truth quite a few years ago, as I struggled with lack of patience and kindness and gentleness in my life. I began practicing this principle daily and continue to, consciously putting on patience and kindness and gentleness, along with the other garments.
Then I began to realize what happened. I became keenly aware of my lack of these things during the day. That’s the first step. As soon as I was unkind, God’s Spirit within me would convict me. That quiet voice of God would say, “Kindness just fell off, Mary. Put it back on, please.” Then I became aware that I was handling situations and people with more compassion than before. I discovered I really cared about their feelings, and I wanted to be kind and gentle.
This is not meant to be just a clever way of talking about the fruit of God’s Spirit. It is rather meant to be a practical way to help you put on these lovely inner garments and watch God transform your life. I challenge you to put on these clothes, by faith, every day.