Alright! Well once again we are going to be looking in Ephesians for our New Nature characteristics! This is such a great book and I'm going to exhaust this book of all it has so that we can receive as much out of it as possible!! We will go back to the beginning of chapter 4 verse 1 and 2. Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. WOW what a lifestyle we are called to have! Can you imagine experiencing all these things on a day to day basis? It is completely possible, this is how God designed us to live. In complete honest and pure relationship with everyone. Unfortunately the world is polluted by sin and is pretty much the devils playground so it is harder and harder to live our life of faith out. One by one lets look at these characteristics and think through how we can apply them to our lives. Always be humble and gentle, sounds so simple doesn't it? What is the meaning of humble? Here is the dictionary definition: 1: not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive 2 : reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission. It is a difficult one to really fully define but really in order to be humble look at the life of Jesus. He knew who He was and he walked in that. He didn't see others lower than Himself and he submitted to God's authority ultimately. I can't say that He always submitted to the authority of man because according to the church leaders he was breaking the law by his sabbath miracles. Now being Gentle, how can we be gentle? There are so many attributes that can connect with the word gentle. Someone who is gentle would not be aggressive, they'd be calm, sensitive. Take some time and try and think of 5 ways to be gentle. Ok now onto the last characteristic for this week and its the one people expect from everyone else but when it comes to us having it personally it seems to sometimes slip out of our grip. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Patience, it is not always an easy thing to have patience. I think Paul gives a great explanation of how to exercise this Godly trait. It is out of love for the person and most importantly out of our love for God that we are able to make allowance for our faults. That is how to have patience, to extend grace in those times instead of getting upset and causing ourselves to overreact. No one is perfect, not even ourselves.....I know it might seem hard to hear but we are not perfect, we have faults so therefore we must practice patience in ALL SITUATIONS!

You guessed it, THIS WEEK PRACTICE THESE THREE AREAS!!! Think about how to become more humble, how to be gentle, and the best way for you to be patient. Pray this week for God to grow you in these areas. He'll bring situations your way that will cause you to apply these characteristics. Ask Him to empower you because I promise you without His hand working directly in your life in these areas, you will not walk them out to the fullest. Continue to just rely on Him for all you need. He has called you to walk in these areas, it is time to fully experience His intention for your life.