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What It Looks Like To Experience A New Life
Remember when you were a kid how fun it was to get really dirty? We’re talking grime in your nose, eyes, mouth, hair, and ears. Dirt crammed under your fingernails, and down your shirt. Cleaning up was no small feat. It took a hard scrubbing, and often more than one.
We often think we have to clean-up to come to Jesus. But just like your mom welcomed you home, mud and all, Jesus welcomes us, mess and all. And just like your mom was not content to let you walk around the house covered in dirt and grime, Jesus doesn’t stand idly by while we track mud everywhere. He loves us too much to leave us as we are.
Colossians 3:12 says God chose us to be His holy people. To be holy is to be sanctified, cleansed, set apart for something special. God doesn’t expect us to become holy by ourselves. He sent the Holy Spirit to help us live the new life we’ve received.
Putting on this new nature can feel a lot like those scrubbings we got as kids. Sometimes, things get messier before they get better. But as we get to know Jesus and become more like Him, we shed our old selves. Like chunks of mud washing down the drain, our old habits and ways of thinking slowly disappear. And after a while, the person we see in the mirror looks a whole lot different than the one who first walked in the bathroom.
The same way we don’t put dirty clothes back on after a good scrub down, Jesus gives us new spiritual clothes to wear. Instead of clothing ourselves in greed, anger, lust, and impurity, we put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love (Colossians 3:12-14). Those characteristics are what set God’s people apart.
Becoming holy as God is holy isn’t something we can do on our own, and it isn’t something that happens quickly. Rather, it takes a lifetime of partnering with the Holy Spirit and saying, “What do you see that I can’t?”
Reflect:
- How has your life changed since you met Jesus?
- What's one remanent of your old life that you still want to change?
- What is one way you can put on mercy, kindness, gentleness or patience today?
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About this Plan
Jesus made a lot of claims about Himself during His time on Earth. One of the most audacious claims Jesus made is that He is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). You’ve probably heard preachers say, “Jesus is the only way to heaven.” Why is that? Who did Jesus really claim to be? And what does it mean to make Him the standard for truth?
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