I Declare – I will clothe myself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness and patience. I will also make allowance for people’s faults, living my life in an attitude of forgiveness, never allowing offence to stick to me.
This is what I believe and boldly declare.
Colossians 3:12-17 (NLTse)
Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. 16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
The Word of God is a great manual for life and these verses are jammed with some great instruction (and just in case you do know or forgot, ‘this stuff works’). I mean it seriously works. Take the opening verses for example, do that, put those attributes into play in your life and wow…life becomes good. V13, this is also soooo good, “make allowance for the faults of others” – this is a great life lesson for we all need to be continually reminded of. Then it goes on to talk about ‘love’ and ‘peace’ and ‘thankfulness’ and ‘singing’, things this world and each of us could also use a little more of. The Bible is awesome! My friends, keep reading it for all its worth and never stop for the resurrected life is about transformation which comes from the pages of this matchless book.