365 Days with God - Day 120: Completely New

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 120, April 19, 2014

Readings: Psalm 119:89-176, Leviticus 26, Isaiah 35, Ephesians 4:17-32

Now I say this and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! - assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  (Ephesians 4:17-24)

What has happened to us? Why have we assumed that the world has overcome the power of Christ? Jesus is more powerful than the bondage of sin, more powerful than addictions and everything that bogs us down. We have been given freedom from the sins of our past. We have the ability to put off our old self, and to be renewed by Christ, putting on the likeness of God. That is powerful!

This means that we don't have to be slaves to our desires any more. Make no mistake, they are strong. They may even have been a lifestyle for us, something that seems to plague us. But God is more powerful, and He has given us new life, life that is righteous and holy.

So why are we so quick to give up? Why do we insist that these sins are more powerful? That the sins overcome us? Such to the point that we are no longer calling them sin - many church bodies are giving up, and becoming darkened in their understanding. Yes, Christ is graceful. Yes, Christ died for everyone and loves all.

But.

Christ came to give us new life. Christ came to free us from corruption. Christ came to release us from the bondage of sin, that through him we could be slaves no longer to it's desires. Through Christ we have the power to say no, the power to live differently, and the capability to be righteous and holy. Why are we willing to trade that for the old muck?

What sin(s) are you allowing to keep you in chains?