Know What’s Good For You
We all have those things in life that we would like to do – that is not always good for us, or the right thing to do. Something that may seem like it would make life simpler for us – but at the peril of others. Something we’d enjoy for the moment, but what about the ongoing cost?
Colossians 3:1-11
3 You have been raised to life with Christ. Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side. 2 Think about what is up there, not about what is here on earth. 3 You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, who sits beside God. 4 Christ gives meaning to your life, and when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory.
5 Don’t be controlled by your body. Kill every desire for the wrong kind of sex. Don’t be immoral or indecent or have evil thoughts. Don’t be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols. 6 God is angry with people who disobey him by doing these things. 7 And that is exactly what you did, when you lived among people who behaved in this way. 8 But now you must stop doing such things. You must quit being angry, hateful, and evil. You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. 9 And stop lying to each other. You have given up your old way of life with its habits.
10 Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand him better. 11 It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not. You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian, and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
So, having ascertained that money isn’t everything, we are now pointed to what is important – God, and the meaning he gives to our lives.
We’re warned not to be greedy, not to look for the wrong things, or even think the wrong things – to do so shows we have learned nothing. There are quite some challenges to behaviour in there… they certainly make not eating too many cakes or taking a short cut seem inconsequential. How often do we hurt others by our behaviour, words or just thoughts? If people could read our minds, what would they think of us? Remember God can! Those things, and others that apply in our lives, we know, are not things becoming of people who know what God has done for them. If God is the one that gives meaning to our lives, then we should be looking to live his ways – the old way of our life, however much simpler it may have seemed, is not the way to live.
And if we return also to understanding God and his ways, this suggests that the way to do that is to try to live more like him. I know that when we’re in confusion and despair, that seems like the last thing possible, but if we can learn to live God’s ways when we are more confident, they may become a pattern for a life and hold us up when it is more difficult.
Our life is in Christ. These things may seem impossible to us, but the great news about God, is he is making them possible in us. It’s not something we have to do, it is a gift he gives us. If we let it be, our life is hidden – hidden behind Jesus, who died and rose again so it could be so.
Lord,
I pray that my life
may look like I follow you.
My actions,
my words,
my thoughts
may be the ones you have,
Forgive me
for the times they are not,
when I take the apparently easy route,
the way that looks fun,
rather than your way.
Thanks you for all that Jesus did,
that my life may be hidden,
and his be given.
May I live like it is so
Pam's Perambulation 