Day 30 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

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. Forget as the Lord forgave you. -Colossians 3:12-13

Good morning, great morning, grace and peace be unto all of you, my father's children. It is day number 30 in our 40-day Lenten devotional and we are truly  coming into seemingly what would look to be the home stretch  of this 40-day fast  and it has been quite a journey.  This week, our focus has been on that of humility. So I'd love if you could  turn with me and your swords to  the wonderful book of Colossians.

Paul's letter to this wonderful group of Christians. I'm going to look at the third chapter,  specifically the 12th verse. And you find these similar words. “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. Forget as the Lord forgave you.”

I love this scripture because this scripture as Paul writes to this wonderful church in Kutztown, it almost speaks to the same thing that my parents would say to me when we were younger. There's a comparison that children always bring up, especially as it relates to growing up and dealing with different ways of discipline. You would find children often say, “well, such and such can do it. Why can't I? Well, I'm not such as such parent,” is oftentimes my mother's response. And, “you not such as such child.” This entire scripture is built to speak about the difference it means to walk the Christian life. That ultimately the same rules don't apply. That there's an expectation on your life which is different than those who have not accepted Christ as their personal savior. To those who don't hold up the bloodstained banner or call themselves Christian are held to a different standard. And so this entire piece that he speaks of, says, listen, let me give you the characteristics of what I expect from you. There's one thing to be said about people think that we can oftentimes take for granted this notion where people say, everybody in the church ain't nothing but people, sinners saved by grace, as though there's no separation or difference. The expectation that people have when they walk into a church, is that there is something different. There is something set apart. There is something that makes you different when you were chosen. And one of those things is being humble. That humility is a characteristic of a child of God. In a place in a society where we would like to credit for all the wonderful things that we do and deny responsibility for all the terrible things that happen as a result of our flesh.

God is calling us to a different level of accountability. Say, listen, you are humble.  Not only you humble, he says you are gentle, you are patient. And then goes on the following verse to talk about how  you're also forgiving. The humility is placed right alongside the same commitment that we make on first Sunday. That humbleness says that even after people have wronged you, people have...transgressed against you. Your job is forgiveness. Even times when people haven't forgiven you, your job as a Christian is forgiveness. Your job is humility.  The whole being the bigger person,  that's always you. This is an interesting banner to carry, but I love how he puts it in the backdrop.  The reason why we walk humbly is because we have a set of information that makes us different, makes us aware. We realize that every day we come face-to-face with the recognition of what God has done for us in spite of us. And so when we realize God's  faithfulness and even oftentimes forgiveness  and humility dealt with  our sinful nature, we can't help but echo the same sediments and have the same character.

So yes, while other people can hold grudges, other people can walk  and do a number of different things, you can't.  And God is saying, well, they can, but you are my child. You've claimed me as your father. So I have a different level of expectation of how you are to move. So yes, be clothed in humility.

That's our word for this morning. I pray that all is well and that you have an incredible, incredible, terrific Tuesday. You be blessed.