Let me begin by reading the passage from Colossians 3, verses 12-15.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

These are the garments we should be wearing as Christians: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, peace, thankfulness, and love. And as I said in part one, these are the fruit of the Spirit of God—evidence of God's Spirit in you.

Here’s the good news about these garments we are to put on—these garments are intended for every believer; they are within your grasp, and they look wonderful on all of us. But the big question is, how do we really put on these beautiful garments? It makes a nice talk, but how does it translate into reality in our lives?

The first thing is to understand that putting on these garments is not an act of our emotions; it is an act of our will. So often in our Christian walk, we want all the feelings before we exercise faith. We want to feel gentle and humble and peaceful and thankful. And if our feelings aren't working so good on a particular day, then we assume we just can't wear those garments that day, because we don't feel them. The sooner we learn that feelings cannot be trusted and are not a barometer of our spiritual temperature, the sooner we'll be able to take these garments and wear them. And that’s done by faith, not by feelings.

When you know you're facing a day that will require, for instance, a great deal of patience, keep repeating that you will put on patience for that day. Put it on by faith, regardless of whether you feel patient or not. Your feelings will eventually give up and come along with your will, but never mind them. Will to do God’s will. He will supply the patience when you need it if you don't allow your emotions to destroy your faith.

You wear these garments by faith, just as you accepted God's gift of eternal life by faith. The act of your will is your part; God does the rest.

Secondly, wearing this wardrobe is not a function of our personalities. Many of these inner garments probably do not come naturally to your personality. But that does not keep you from wearing all of them.

I think that we often let ourselves off the hook by saying, "Well, that's just the way I am. I can't be anyone else; I have to be myself.” We've been fed this current philosophy of "be your own person" so much that we use that idea to excuse ourselves from whatever we feel doesn't "fit" us.

Well, I can't see where God makes any exceptions for personality. He has all the garments you can ever need, and he's ready to impart them to you. Don't let your personality or “the way you are” be an excuse for not making God's best dressed list. It is possible—through Christ—for all believers to wear this entire wardrobe.

Maybe one reason you haven't put on too many of these garments is that there just isn’t any room in your closet. Could it be your closet is cluttered with all kinds of outdated, ugly clothes? In the same third chapter of Colossians, we find a list of clothes we should "put off," and that list includes anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, and lying (vs. 8).

Do you have any of these ugly clothes in your closet? If so, they are taking up so much room and occupying so much of your time and thoughts that you're left with little room for the beautiful clothes you need to wear. Are you harboring anger that you refuse to deal with? Anger plus resentment equals wrath. Wearing wrath these days? I can promise you that it is unbecoming. Malice is the desire to see others suffer—wishing bad thing...