Fashionable Followers

God has chosen you and made you His holy people. He loves you. So always do these things: Show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle and patient. Get along with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you. Do all these things; but most important, love each other. Love is what holds you all together in perfect unity.

Colossians 3:12-14

“What am I going to wear today?” is a question that I ask myself every single morning. I’m no fashonista, but I probably waste more time in the morning finding my outfit for the day than anything else. I’m sure that this is something that you ask yourself everyday too. In fact, it’s something that most women spend quite a bit of time thinking about. (I’m sure men spend some time on it too, but they may not care about the answer as much as women do!)

I’m a firm believer that the Bible has answers to all of our questions, but I never really thought to pray about what to wear until I came across this passage in Colossians. I should have known that the Bible had the answer to this age-old question. Here it is: in response to being chosen and holy and dearly loved by God, this is what we should wear: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love.

Go look up each of these words in the dictionary and spend some time meditating on each of them. What would they look like if we put them on? How would our lives and relationships be different? Then write out Colossians 3:12-14 and hang it up in your closet or bathroom mirror where you’ll see it every morning.

Just like the clothes that we put on each day, we need to clothe ourselves with these characteristics every day. We need to persistently put them on – just like we put on our shoes each day.

These character traits aren’t a part of us naturally. We weren’t born with them; they don’t get put on once and stay put. They come from God and we have to make the choice to submit to the Holy Spirit so that He can showcase these traits in us every single day.

So what are you going to wear today? Because without these things, it doesn’t usually matter what outfits we choose or how perfectly our accessories match. We may look fashionable on the outside, but God is looking at our hearts – wanting to see if we’re going to wear what He picked out for us. Nothing could make us look more attractive.

“In pageants, there is only one declared the fairest of them all. But with the Lord there is no competition. All have an equal privilege to have His image engraven upon their countenance. There is no truer beauty.” -Lynn G. Robbins