DT – 4/28 – Colossians 2:6-7 – Continuing On

What does it mean to “just as you received Christ as Lord, continue to live in him?” I received Christ as Lord by accepting the gospel as true and by surrendering my life to Jesus.  In other words, I recognized that the Bible’s testimony about me—that I am a sinner—is true and I also recognized that Christ loved me and that he died for my sins.   I also recognized that my life is not my own, and God has total ownership over my life.  This was my conviction when I first received Christ as Lord.  Now the challenge is to continue to live like this on a daily basis.  I’m proud and forgetful of who I really am and what Christ did.  Sometimes I look to what I’ve done for Christ and fool myself into thinking that I’ve changed and that I’m not bad.  But the hard fact is that I’m a sinner and I’m still in need of the gospel every day.  On any given day, there things happen that challenge my faith and trust in the gospel.  In other words sometimes my source of significance isn’t my relationship with God but on what I do.  And when that happens, I find myself insecure, jealous, envious and irritated by others.  And so one way that I can continue to live as I received Christ as Lord is by defining myself by who I am and not by what I do.

Reflect on the words “rooted and built up in him,” “strengthened in the faith as you were taught,” “overflowing with thankfulness.”  What do each of these look like?  Assess how I am doing in each of these areas.   Rooted and built up in him.  This means that I’m grounded in God’s word, and that his words and his promises are more trustworthy than in situation that can happen in my life.  When I’m rooted in God’s word, I cannot be shaken and I cannot be moved.  The world can try to do what it wants to me, but to no avail because God’s word is stronger.  Being built up in him means that the Word of god is transforming my life.  What that means is that I am growing spiritually, and I am changing for the better and for God’s glory.  Strengthened in faith as I was taught.  This means that my trust in God’s word as true is growing, and what this looks like is that my values and my goals in life become more and more independent from the world.  When I am strengthened in faith, I become more heaven bound, and so my personal agenda starts to decrease and I come to have more room in my heart for others.  Overflowing in thankfulness means that my life is characterized by gratitude.  This means that a complaining spirit is rare, and that I can easily find reasons to be thankful.  This means that I’m not taking what I have in life for granted, and that I’m content for what I have.

Tags: Colossians

~ by williamkang on April 28, 2009.