Have you taken some time recently to consider your negative character traits? I am referring to actions that portray your thoughts and feelings. Evidently, these are not the kinds of traits that you want to highlight on your resume, or advertise to people around you, though others are sometimes cognizant of them. Perhaps these personal weaknesses or tendencies cause you some emotional pain in addition to the challenges everyday life brings. You may even wonder if you have hope when you consider your objectionable character traits.
Let’s consider a few of the 12 men that God chose to be apostles. They “differed widely in habits and disposition. There were the publican, Levi-Matthew, and the fiery zealot Simon, the uncompromising hater of the authority of Rome; the generous, impulsive Peter, and the mean-spirited Judas; Thomas, truehearted, yet timid and fearful, Philip, slow of heart, and inclined to doubt, and the ambitious, outspoken sons of Zebedee” who were called “the sons of thunder” because of their angry, revengeful, combative spirit (Desire of Ages, p. 296). Jesus chose to use these men with evil tendencies like us to reach others who were very much imperfect. He chose “earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of [them]” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
You would recall, however, that Peter denied his Lord shortly before Jesus would lay down His life for the salvation of mankind. Not only did he deny Jesus by His claim not to know Him, but also by swearing to certify that He was not one of His followers. It was his struggle with pride that led him not to heed Jesus’ warning that He would deny Him. And what about James and John, “the sons of thunder” who, along with Peter were the disciples who were closest to Jesus? They were “proud and ambitious to be first in the kingdom of God” (Desire of Ages, p. 295). They are perhaps notable for having an evil temper that made them quick to want to destroy those who did not treat Jesus favorably. However, the good news is that neither of these three men settled down into acceptance of their defects in character.
The more time the disciples spent with Jesus, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, the more they began to change more into His likeness. They learned lessons from the teachings and the life of Jesus, and over time a transformation occurred. The work that was wrought in the life of these men can occur in your life too. There is, indeed, hope for you, reader, and all who open their hearts to Jesus. “For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory (character) of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of Lord” (2 Corinthians 4:6; 3:18).
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