I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…
Ephesians 4:1-2
We have been called to belong to Christ. We’ve been adopted as children of God. As such, we are to demonstrate His character here on earth. Throughout the Old Testament, God called his people Israel to live differently than the nations around them. They were to be examples of God’s holiness to a watching world. In the same way, God calls us to live in a manner worthy of the calling He has given.
Humility, gentleness, patience, and love are not attributes that come naturally to us. Humility is not just low self esteem. Humility is putting others’ needs before one’s own. Gentleness is not just being polite or quiet. Gentleness is a tender spirit with quiet strength, rooted in self-control. Patience is not just waiting in a long line to buy groceries. Patience is persevering in all circumstances with contentment and trust. Love is not just a passing affection for someone else. Love is choosing to care for and protect and forgive someone no matter what. It seems as though all of these attributes are rejected or unnoticed by our culture, and our culture actively works to redefine and cheapen what these attributes are.
But, we have an example of all of these attributes, Jesus Christ. Humility – even though Jesus was God, He took on human form to become a servant and died a criminal’s death. Gentleness – when Jesus was reviled and taunted, He did not retaliate. Patience – instead of coming with judgment for our sin, Jesus came with redemption and is even still waiting to bring judgment. Love – to the ones who crucified and disowned him, Jesus extends unconditional forgiveness. We are called to follow in his steps.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!
References: Leviticus 19:1, Philippians 2:3, James 5:11, 1 Corinthians 13:1-7, Philippians 2:5-8, 1 Peter 2:21-23, 2 Peter 3:9, Ephesians 1:7-8
Studio Update:
I’m still trying new things and learning. I started an experiment with watercolor-ing the background of what’s going to be a colored pencil sunflower…I hope. I used masking fluid to reserve the sunflower space and damaged the paper a little bit, so we’ll see how the colored pencil layers on the messed up areas.
The surprise lilies were two weeks early like everything else this year, but I’ve really enjoyed them with our lisianthus and cosmos. I think I like surprise lilies because they’re a limited-time offer, but come back every year (kind of like spring flowers)…and they’re so pretty!
Oh. And pictures of the screen prints that I promised last time.
Thanks for stopping!
Blair