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Devotional Day 3 Sept. 7th 2016

By September 7, 2016Daily Devotional

Pray:

Ask God to orient or reorient you to himself. Confess any known sin.  Thank him for his forgiveness.  Be still and reflect on Jesus and his sacrifice for you.  Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s word.  Pray for others in your life that they too would know and love God today.

Read:

Ephesians 4:17-25

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

Understand:

Paul is giving us instructions for how to live. We’re not to live like the world does; it’s empty and fruitless. They have no room in their hearts for God, nor do they want any room. Their world is all about them. It’s what Terry has called meism.

Christ teaches us something different. In him, we’re to put off the old self and put on the new self, walk in the newness of life. The old self is gone. When we believed in Christ, the old clothes were thrown away, and we we’re now clothed in Christ!

This new life is based on truth, the truth found in the Gospel. So we engage our minds as we head in a new direction.

The word “therefore” is important. Paul is about to tell us practical steps we can take to engage are minds. He says, “You must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

We’re to tell the truth with each other because as a body of believers we’re all part of one body. One team, one fight. We have no reason to rack and stack. We don’t have to lie, put up facades and act like everything is perfect when it’s not. We can put away lying and put on truthfulness.

Being truthful and putting off falsehood opens us up to opportunities for us to truly be known beyond just the surface.

Paul calls us to live an open and honest life.

Apply:

What are reasons people tend not to live an open and honest life?

Are you doing any of these things?

What is one thing you could change in your life to help you demonstrate an open and honest life?

What is keeping you from doing it?

Maybe you’re already there and you’re living an open and honest life. What is one thing you could to encourage others to do the same?

What could you do to make your answer a reality this week?

Live:

(Personalize this prayer for today, make it specific to the circumstances that face you.) Ask God to lead you through his Spirit as you go through your day.  Ask him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today.  Tell him “Yes” to his will today and ask him for his power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask him to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY TODAY.

 

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