Reminders

Colossians 3:9-11 “You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.”

Doesn’t it feel great when you’ve gotten through something and you’re finally finished with it?  I had this assignment a couple of years back, in one of my education classes.  It had been posted for weeks but I flat out didn’t want to do it.  I usually was very good at doing my work early and hardly ever waited until last minute unless it was out of my hands.  It came down to the last day it could be turned in.  I got in front of my computer all ready to go.  I opened the assignment, read it, and stared.  I finally just jumped into it and finished, telling myself the whole time that there was money at the end of this education tunnel.  Every time I’m reminded of that assignment, I get that dreaded feeling again and am so thankful that it’s over.  I believe this feeling can bleed over into mistakes we’ve made in our life.  Once God has brought you out of your mistakes and given you a clean start, you’re overjoyed to have it over with.  Once we’re reminded of a mistake, those old feelings of being dirty or weighed down seem to creep over us.  They bring back the gross feelings of our past and it’s disheartening.  We need to remember that God has taken that from us and it’s no longer a part of who we are it was a part of who we were.  It’s been brought into the light which means it’s no longer covering our light.  Don’t let the shadows of past mistakes cloud the light of God shining from your renewed, pure heart.  When someone brings up a mistake you have made or you are reminded of it, proudly say, “God has made me new and that is no longer a part of who I am.”  It gives me goosebumps just typing that.  I’m telling you, come back from the depths of the crap you’re in and let God renew you.  I can say from experience, it hurt like nobody’s business and I had to regain trust but it was worth it.  The feeling of that regained trust and freedom, I realized, was something I had missed. The feeling of being separated from my God, I realize, I have never missed.

Romans 6:17-18 “Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!”