"Making it Real" - 2

 "Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools." (Ecclesiastes 7:9 KJV)

  "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:31-32 NLT)

 This much I know, if we put into our minds that which is wholesome and makes us draw closer to the Lord, then we will have a much better control on the way we react to adversity and the things that once made us bitter. Paul puts it in a form of "putting on our New Nature" as if we have on a new set of clothes, which actually symbolizes that we are showing our New Nature off to the world around us. 

 That might sound a little like vanity, to be showing off being tenderhearted and forgiving; but it is what we are told to do: to be salt and light to the world around us! They will know that we are Christians by our love! There is something important that is made real, by the way we love one another: We know that the Lord is living through us...

"Dear friends, if we don't feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us." (1 John 3:21-24 NLT)