What does define you? What are you made of? Not things that we’d think that often yet they matter. Who we are matters. Whose we are matters even more. Today I read a Bible verse that made me wonder of what qualities actually define me. These are the qualities I want to define me: mercy, kindness and truth.

Do not let mercy and kindness and truth leave you [instead let these qualities define you];
Bind them [securely] around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
(Proverbs 3:3, AMP,*)

Mercy, kindness and truth

Mercy, kindness are truth are usually qualities that represent God in the Bible. We can’t let God and these qualities to leave us. And God won’t, he has promised to always be with us. And, yes, he also defines us. We are his beloved children and that’s something nobody can take away from us. These qualities – mercy, kindness and truth – also define the perfection of moral character in us. This is what God wants from us. Mercy, kindness and truth are to be our constant companions through life. They are to show us how to live: with integrity and love.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:8, NIV,*)

How to live with integrity?

The answer is not to exercise more your moral muscle. You see, we can’t make ourselves good. But God can. Hence, the answer is to let God change us inside out. The only way to do that is to live in his grace day by day. Then the Holy Spirit changes us little by little. When we are filled with grace, hate and other forms of selfishness start to disappear with all kinds of falsehoods and hypocrisy. Hence, there is more room for mercy, kindness and truth in us. Don’t forget: it’s all God’s work in us. Yet we are the ones blessed with a balanced life full of love and all the good things.

 

Gracious God,
Thank you for callings us away from falsehood and hate.
Fill us to the brim with mercy, kindness and truth.
Be our constant companion through life.
Guide us, change us, love us.
Be our everything and make us everything we can be.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What/who defines you?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you let mercy, kindness and truth define you!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses toBiblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.].

Image courtesy of Ben White/unsplash.com, design by Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Five-minute Friday.