Journal Entry ~ 04/03/19
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 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.14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. - Colossians 3:12-14
I know we’ve been in this passage before, but I feel like God keeps drawing me back to it this week, so He must have a good reason to have me meditate on it again ☺️
As children of God, we are to be the most loving people that the people in our lives know. In order to do accomplish this, we are given specific traits - compassion, kindness, meekness, and patience. Since these are the traits we are to embody, we should pause to reflect what each of these traits truly look like in our lives.
Today, I am focused on the first trait - compassion. Do we live with compassionate hearts for others? Compassion is the ability to feel what others are feeling. When others are hurting, do we take the time to hurt with them and care for them?
We must be careful as we navigate through our own trials that we never allow them to become bigger than those around us. It's tempting in a world focused on self, to focus in on my problems, to talk about what is bothering me, to turn everyone's attention to me...but hat's not what a compassionate heart looks like.
God's original design for us was that we are to care deeply for one another. Sin broke us and turned us inward toward ourself. 2 Cor 1:3-4 teaches us that our trials break us out of our own heads, and help develop in us compassionate hearts. As we struggle, we begin to understand one another's struggles a little better, and our hearts become more compassionate.
That's always been His plan for us - that we deeply care for on me another. Praying as God continues to work in me, that He transforms my selfish heart into one that is full of compassion for others. I know this only happens through the work of the Spirit, so while I may be tempted to get down on myself for not being a compassionate person some of the time, I remind myself I cannot do this in my own power. The only way to put on the kind of compassion that God draws me to is to strengthen the Spirit that lives in me.
Press on ~ you are loved 💗
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