The verse we've been memorizing together this month is Colossians 3:12 and it says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." There are five virtues listed in our verse this month, and these five things are all things that are true of Christ. And these are also things that we see most clearly or maybe see our need for most clearly as we live together in community.
Just this past week, one of my kids was having a hard time living out the call of this verse. And to be honest, so was I. We sat down together and started talking and as we looked at the tattoos on our arm from our Dwell kit, we were talking about this verse and how God's word is there to help us in our times of struggle. As we were talking, my kid said something insightful.
"I know my feelings are lying to me right now, but sometimes it just feels impossible to live this way."
Because of what I've been learning throughout the month from Dwell, I was able to say, "That's exactly right. It does feel impossible to live this way when we're trying to do it just in our own strength."
Even our very best tries are still going to fail. But the good news for us is that as Christians, we actually aren't resting on our own efforts. Instead, we are clothed in Jesus's righteousness. We talked about how when we come face to face with our feelings or are feeling just discouraged and our lack of living the way that we know we're called to, we can go to God in prayer, confessing our [00:02:00] sin and asking him to help us and that he will.
God will help us because all of these things are true of God. God is compassionate. He's kind, he's humble and gentle and patient. He can equip us to live the way that he has called us to live. And so we prayed together and then we got out some craft supplies. And we each made a bracelet that said, "God is," and the virtue that we were asking God to really help us with. My bracelet says, "God is patient."
And as we were making the bracelets, instead of it just saying, "Be patient," I wanted to do what Paul does in the book of Colossians, where he focuses first on who God is, and then on who we are because of Christ. And then finally, on how we are to live in light of that. And so that's what we're doing.
That's what we are practicing together — looking first to who is God? I know that God is patient and so I can go to him in prayer because of my identity in Jesus as someone who is holy and dearly loved by him and then God can equip me and will equip me through the power of the Holy Spirit to reflect his character to those around me.
Who's someone that you can talk to today about what you're learning in God's Word? Find someone and have a discussion about Colossians 3:12— confessing areas where you aren't relying on God and are just trying in your own strength, and are failing and going to God together in prayer, asking him to help you and trusting that he will and doing what Paul does at the beginning of the letter to the Colossians, where he reminds them that we work with God's energy working in us.
We hope that memorizing this verse this month has been an encouragement to you as it has to us as we remember who God is, who we are in light of that, and then how He has called us and equips us to live. We're really excited to dig into another verse in September and we look forward to getting into it with you next week.
See you then.
