Old or New?

Read Colossians again, sure the whole book, it takes 10-15 minutes, max. Chapter 3 caused me much pause to reflect.

What better place to look for optimism, for something positive, than “above”. This is where we should set our mind, on “things” related to Christ, who has hidden our old lives in Him. When God the Father looks at the believer, He sees Christ. What could make us feel better than that? But it is much more than a feeling, it is fact, and that fact should change lives.

Colossians 3 tells us what we should consider dead. If we are commanded to stop doing something, these headline that list:
Immorality, impurity, passion (the inappropriate variety), evil desire and greed, basically – idolatry.

There are more: anger, wrath, malice (cruel spite), slander, abusive speech, lying.

Yet the focus on this chapter is remembering what Christ has done on our behalf, and now with the power of the Holy Spirit, we actually CAN put these old things away, and the best way to do that is to “put on” the new attributes that signify the believer.

Compassion, kindness, humility (can we ever have enough of this one?), gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiveness, love.

Christ’s peace should dwell in us, we should be under His direction, His rule. The most direct way for this to happen is to have His word dwell in each of us. Does God’s word reside in us? Do we take in enough of His word regularly to allow it to impact our lives? Or do we struggle with the “don’ts”, wondering why we continually succumb to sin habits?

Brothers and sisters, let’s take some significant time to invest in God’s word, allowing it to form and frame our thought, enabling it to foster real change in our lives, for His glory.