If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with [his] hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. -Ephesian 4:21-32
Put off the old man. Put on righteousness. Even people who seem to have it all together should live by this. There's a reason that the Bible says that we are to die to Christ daily. No one has it THAT together that they never have to work on themselves. Praise God that I'm gaining victory in my eating - but it will be something that I always will have to be conscious to. And then there will probably be something that I have to work on next....Here's the good news of it all, though: God gives us an out. I've known several alcoholics in my life who went throught the twelve step process of AA and most of them took up smoking so they wouldn't drink anymore. Now I know that's not what God wants out of us when we put off something. God says to put on that which is holy in lieu of that which is sinful or that which tears down. He wants us to grow closer to Him, not further away. That's why He gave us a whole list of things that we should put off so we can put on righteousness. It's not a list of 'do nots,' it's a list of 'please do.' Here's the deal - it takes work. These verses don't say ' take on [fill in the blank].' They say 'put' on. You don't get up in the morning and your socks fly on to your feet. It takes some effort on your part. It takes a daily dose of dying to yourself to be able to live like Christ wants us to live so we can be in closer fellowship with Him. Here's what I've been doing in my life in the realm of losing weight and exercising: I've been making a list (and generally living by) my list of put ons. I wrote down my list of what has been unedifying in my food intake (snacking inappropriately, eating too much, using food for comfort....) and then I wrote down what I can put on instead of those actions (reading the Bible when I feel the urge to snack inappropriately, writing down before each meal what I will eat so I don't eat too much, leaning on the Lord for comfort, fasting once a week, exercising each day for at least 30 minutes....). Praise God for outs. Our whole purpose in life shouldn't be self gratification. God wants us to be happy and to live an abundant life but it has to be His way.
No comments:
Post a Comment