What rules your heart?

"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 whatever grievances you may have against one another. 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." -Colossians 3:12-15

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you." To forgive as God has forgiven us is to forgive completely. Anyone who has been hurt by another individual understands that it is often times nearly impossible to forgive completely. It's easy to mouth the words "I forgive you", and quite often it is not the truth. We spend time holding both big and little things against people frequently. In order to forgive completely we must understand that we've been forgiven completely. All of our selfish negative thoughts, all of our hurtful words spoken, all of our quick reactions we immediately regret, all of our sins, big and small, have been forgiven by Christ. To not forgive completely is to not fully accept the gift of forgiveness by Jesus Christ. On our own, this forgiveness is impossible. We might claim forgiveness, but there always seems to be hurt and resentment lingering in our heart. The only solution to ridding ourselves of these burdens called "grudges" is to pray that we might be filled with Christ's Spirit to forgive. In Colossians, we are instructed to "let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts". Peace does not exist where there is turmoil. Peace does not exist where there is hurt and anger. A peace that rules our hearts can only exist if Christ rules our hearts. To allow Christ to rule our hearts we must clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. These are qualities that only Jesus possessed to the full, and if we desire to possess them, we must fully possess a heart for Jesus. Above all we must put on love. To love is to know God. 

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name...Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." -Matthew 6:9,12

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