That Was Once -This is Now!

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” Colossians 1:21-23 NIV

We acknowledge that all of us were alienated from God – not a one of us stands before Him guiltless in our own worthiness. This was because of the way we thought. Oh, glory! How we need to understand that the secret is how we think. Our minds hold the key to our total belief system. We actions are the result of what our minds think. If the mind is unchanged and unrenewed, then our lives cannot be transformed by His power. The whole key is what and how we think! When we choose to open our hearts to our beloved Lord, we enabled a change, or we stepped into a change of thought. Belief is our choice. Once made, if we willingly allow the power of God resident within us to begin to renew that thought process and pathway, then we have opened and guaranteed change in our behavior. All this begins when we choose and say “yes” in a willing openness to His salvation.

As we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us through His Word, our mind becomes empowered to think differently, and we move from knowing we are condemned into knowing we are holy, blameless and free from any accusation. His power within us is capable of making real what He says is true. If you are living according to the Word, but struggling with condemnation, then you need to take time to read this little 4 chapter book of Colossians and choose to believe its truths. Then choose to think about those truths – a lot. Then change in that whole process will disappear. In the light of the truth of this gospel, that has to leave. Colossians is a fantastic primer in the life in the New Covenant purchased and put in place by our Lord Jesus Christ for each and everyone who will choose Him.

He accomplished this for us over 2,000 years ago through His physical body and His death on the cross. We are now reconciled and able to think and do as He would. This is awesome to allow to penetrate into our minds and begin to grab hold of this truth. There is an “if” attached. We will study that in the next post.For now, this is enough to begin the process. Faith is the key to allowing and holding. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading.