Thursday, February 20th

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 

Colossians 3:3

We are supposed to be dead to ourselves, girls.  What does that really mean?  It means that we are no longer driven by our own fleshly desires and goals but rather by the ever-present conviction that God is to be in control.

Before a person comes to Christ, he/ she is consumed with his own way; filled with the desire for personal comfort and pleasure.  After Christ, we learn there is a different way.  Being dead in Christ takes on a two- fold meaning.

1) Our past is just that...past.  It's comforting to know that nothing in a Christian's past will ever be remembered.  Erased, covered, buried, and forgotten....our sins are GONE.  We owe the Lord a lifetime of service for this mercy.

2) Though our sins are gone when we accept Christ's gift of forgiveness, learning to die to ourselves is a daily, conscious choice.  Though are spirits are saved, our physical bodies are not.  Our flesh craves and desires that which is not good for us.  Our flesh longs for comfort...that which is pleasant and assuring.  However, the path of the Christian is not always easy or smooth.  During these times, it is the body's natural response to recoil at that which causes us personal sacrifice or grief.  The Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 15:31 that he struggled daily with his flesh.  As hard as it is, to know Christ...to REALLY know Him, we must be willing to lay aside OUR way, OUR desires, OUR plans in order for Christ's way to have the preeminence.  

Fill us, Lord, with the desire to be dead to our ways and alive to yours.

Scripture Reading for the day:
Proverbs 20
Jude