Monday: So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Colossians 3:12-14 (MES) But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says these things are wrong. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their own sinful selves. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit. We must not be proud or make trouble with each other or be jealous of each other. Galatians 5:22-26 (NCV) Reflection: The quest for honor is the passionate pursuit of greatness. Integrity is the compass you will use to find God’s unique path for you on the road to honor. It will not only inform your humility but it will harness your passions and focus your intentions. With integrity as your guide there will be some paths you will automatically reject simply because they lead in a direction contrary to the heart of God. And maybe that’s the best definition of integrity- when your heart is joined with the heart of God. What is important to God becomes important to you. The things that make God happy make your heart soar. The things that hurt God, hurt you. When that begins to happen integrity becomes your compass and suddenly the future becomes much clearer. When we choose to ignore integrity and go our own way, somehow the future becomes much foggier and we find ourselves wondering what happened and where to go next. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to trust someone with integrity? When people do what they say they are going to do, trust is the natural result. But when someone says one thing and then does another how does that make you feel about that person? How about you? Do your actions and your words line up with each other? Believe me, I know how scary following God’s compass can be. When you decide to live your life by God’s heart instead of your own there will be plenty of times when you have to make truly courageous decisions- and that’s why this path of honor must lead us to courage through integrity and to integrity through humility. Because without humility you won’t see the need for integrity, and without courage you won’t be able to live your life with integrity. When I grew up I was a HUGE liar. I lied about everything. I lied to get out of trouble, I lied to make myself look cool, I lied to “protect” people’s feelings, I lied just because it was who I had become through a lifestyle of dishonesty. It caused lots of problems for me but that didn’t stop me from being who I had decided to be- a liar. Hi, I’m Ed and I’m a born liar. But even though I had become a liar, I knew I wasn’t doomed to live my life that way if I didn’t want to. When I gave up on living life my own way and decided to start living a life that would make God smile rather than cringe, I knew integrity would have to play a big part. But I didn’t know how hard it would be. When you’ve lived your life lying to get yourself out of trouble or to spare the feelings of someone else, it’s not an easy habit to break. And habit is a good word for my lying. People would come to me and ask me if I had done something yet and I would decide it was easier to tell them yes and then make sure I did it after they left rather then tell the truth and disappoint them. I was after all, looking out for their feelings. That seemed like a truly Christian thing to do. But when I would get caught it caused some “minor” problems. Namely people didn’t trust me anymore. And when Jonathan was born I remember thinking about how I wanted him to see me as he grew up. I decided I’d rather have the temporary discomfort of telling the truth then having people (especially my son) see me as a person with no honor. And when you live life without the compass of God’s integrity that’s exactly what happens- you live a life absent of the honor of God. Not that when you’re using God’s compass you’ll be perfect. None of us are. But we all know the difference between a person who’s on the quest for honor and the one who has decided it’s just not worth the trouble. So let me ask you- what characteristic of integrity are you having problems with. What threatens to knock you off the quest for honor? I know, you’re not all liars like I was, but all of us have that special place inside of us that struggles with integrity. What’s yours? You might as well just name it right now and decide that it’s not going to rule your life anymore. I know it can be scary but that’s where courage comes into the quest for honor. If you don’t currently have integrity God can form it in you- but like everything else that we’ve been talking about, you have a part to play in this transformation as well. Take a look at the scripture reading for today. Both of those verses are pretty good lists of integrity. In fact in my quiet times one thing I do is go through those lists (or others like them) and ask God to point out what areas I need to work on. Usually one of those qualities of integrity will start flashing at me like a neon sign! Then I’ve found that I have to do my part if God is going to do His. With transformation there are the things God does for us because we cannot do them for ourselves, and the things we have to take care of ourselves because God will not do them for us. Integrity is one of the things that is going to require us to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Look at what Colossians 3:12 tells us: So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you… God wants you to wake up every day and get dressed in the clothing of honor. This isn’t the garden of Eden where you can be “naked and unashamed”. You need your pants and your shirt but you also need to dress yourselves spiritually. And here is the wardrobe God picked out for you: …compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Imagine the extreme makeover God could do in your life if you let Him dress you spiritually every morning when you wake up! I have never been a fashion expert. When I was a teenager I wore clothes that I liked without ever wondering if they went “together”. What does that mean anyways?!?! I went to an amusement park once with a group of friends and I wore my favorite Bermuda shorts (it was the ‘80s- Bermuda shorts were cool then, ok?) and my favorite shirt. What did I care that the shorts were plaid and the shirt was striped? One particular girl (I think her name was Tammy) seemed to take great pleasure in pointing out how stupid I looked. I didn’t care much though so she eventually stopped because there’s no pleasure in making fun of someone who’s so fashion impaired they just don’t get it. Then I went to college and met Judy. After we started dating she made sure she went shopping with me so I wouldn’t embarrass her too much when we were out in public. She showed me what shirts to wear with what pants and what sweater. I even had socks that went with “outfits”. I was styling. One day I went into class and Tammy (the girl from the amusement park had transferred to our school by then) took one look at me and asked, “who dressed you?!?!” I told her that maybe I had dressed myself. She said, “no, I saw how you dress yourself and this isn’t your doing!” Have you ever had a similar situation when it came to your spiritual wardrobe? Are people horrified by your lack of spiritual fashion sense? Do you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror knowing you have no clue what kind of spiritual clothing to put on so you’re not naked? Then let God pick out your clothes tomorrow morning when you wake up. You just have to put them on. Then it will be up to you to make sure that they stay on throughout the day. I don’t want to act like it will be easy but this much I can promise you. If you put on God’s wardrobe every morning and do your best to leave it on as you go through your day people will notice. They’ll ask, “who dressed you?!?!?” And when you ask why, maybe they, like Tammy did with me will say, “because I saw how you dressed yourself and this isn’t your doing!” Prayer: Father, teach me how humility can lead to integrity so that I won’t simply see myself as You do but will also move forward to become more and more like Your Son. Point out what qualities of integrity I need to work on today. Lay out my spiritual clothing for today and give me the wisdom to put it on and leave it on throughout my day.I want to become a person of honor. Show me the areas in my character that are truly weaknesses and are preventing me from becoming like Jesus. Give me whatever I need to overcome my poor character habits. Teach me how to move forward with You… even when I am scared.... and show me what my next step is. What do you want me to do today? Give me the strength to do whatever it is. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 05:20:16 +0000
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