Colossians 3:2-3The message was about identity theft - not the kind with your credit cards being stolen, but the kind where Satan tries his hardest to steal you away from your true identity. This is the identity theft that Christians fight every day.
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
When we accept Christ into our lives, when we become Christians, we die to our worldly self. What this means (and I'm just keeping it simple) is that the old way in which you may have lived - with anger and rage or lies and deception or theft or bitterness or sexual impurity or filthy language - this old way of living is no longer what you are about. You die to that. That is the worldly, fleshly life you were living, but now you live a life with Christ, the Spirit is in you, and you are like new. You are born again. You kind of get a new start.
And in that new start the enemy will try everything in his power to steal away your new identity in Christ and lure you back into the habits of your old life. When it comes to lies and deception, he is the master, and he will use whatever he can to rip you apart from your Creator.
We can't let him win.
Colossians 3:12 tells us to clothe ourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
This is something we need to work on daily. We need to wake up with the mindset that we are going to let those things wash over us each and every day - this is how we keep our identity in Christ from being stolen. This is how we fight the good fight. This is how we stand for what we believe in.
If we allow ourselves to constantly dip back into our old selves it is only a matter of time before that old self takes over. Every day we must consciously choose to walk with God.
Every day we must choose to protect the gift we have been given by God in this new life.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteGet behind me Satan, in the name of Jesus!
Freedom. :)