Friday, July 23: Colossians 2- A God honoring approach to life.

I find it helpful for my spiritual life when I come across sentences that carry straightforward approaches to living faithfully in my Lord Jesus. Today verses 6-7 gave me just such an approach to life. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

This sentence acknowledges that the Christian life begins by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. It is not church membership or attendance or some religious ritual or even sacrament that ushers a person into the faith. Rather it is receiving, putting one’s heart and soul into believing and following Jesus as one’s Lord God Almighty. For me that happened some 35 years ago and I have never regretted my confession of Jesus as Lord, for a day.

In a wonderfully simple fashion, the sentence reminds me that being a Christian, a Christ-follower, is not simply a one-time decision but a daily living in and for Jesus- continue to live in him, Paul writes. And then he offers some practical suggestions on what to do- rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Rooted and built up in Jesus reminds me that daily/regularly I need to be drawing my life source from Jesus and that for me means spending time with Him, like I do, in His Word. There is little better for my faith than to spend time reading and contemplating the truth God has revealed to us in His Word. And then talking with God about His Word and about life.

Strengthened in what you were taught, reminds me that I should study and talk with others about the faith. When I go to the gym for a physical workout, I workout pretty much alone, and yet there are people who I see every day I go.  They encourage me to keep on with the routine. Occasionally a trainer will show me something new or correct a technique. This, too, is important and helpful. Even though I have a routine that works for me, there are always gaps that others can help me improve upon. So it is with my faith.

Finally Paul suggest thankfulness and at the overflowing with thankfulness. A thankful heart is a strong heart. As I write, I sit in Nigeria and outside my room a woman is sweeping the floor with a broom whose handle is broken off at about 2-feet in length, so she is hunched over as she does her work. She lives a very humble life by my standards. I visited her home yesterday. And yet what I love is, she is humming a hymn. Her heart, I know, overflows with thankfulness for the job she has, the studies she can do, for her family and Lord…

There we have it, a God-honoring approach to life… thanks, Paul, for your words (or should I say, Thanks God for placing Your Word in Paul).

O, Lord, as I go about my day today, rooted and built up in you, strengthened by my sisters and brothers, may I overflow with thankfulness… thankfulness that finds its source and fervor in You. Through Jesus, my Lord, I pray… Amen.

 

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