Verse of the Day - Ephesians 4:24

Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. ~ Ephesians 4:24(NLT)

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Here's the context of this verse:

With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
~ Ephesians 4:17-24 (NLT)

We were just talking in Bible Study last night about the Holy Spirit, and the difference between having Him in our hearts as a gift of the Lord when we put our faith in Him, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. About what it means to allow the Spirit to have control, to make change. And here, Paul reiterates that it's a choice -- let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes; put on your new nature...

It's a daily choice to wear the clothes of our new selves, as believers in the Lord. To choose God's ways over our ways. Not to feed the monster of our sinful nature, but to starve it to death.

The beauty of God's working in our lives is just that: He's working. When He asks us to throw off our former selves, and walk in the new nature, He didn't leave us hanging, to fend for ourselves. To try like mad to be a good person, when this sinful nature keeps rearing it's ugly head in our hearts and minds. He gave us the Helper, the Counselor, the Spirit of Jesus Himself, to change us from the inside out.

You and I both know that our thoughts and attitudes are fertile ground for our actions, whether good or bad, right? What we allow to mould how we think is going to sway what we do and how we act, because thoughts and attitudes will eventually lead to actions. If you put sugar in your gas tank (no matter how tasty it is), you won't get very far on the road. Bad fuel=no transportation.

So, we need to feed our soul with good fuel, and the Holy Spirit is like good gas with Techron...and you know how happy the Chevron cars are with the good stuff in their tank?! :-)

God calls us to live a life that sheds light on who He is. He is all things good and right and loving; Satan is everything dark and destructive and vicious. Do you see why our choices matter? We have a job to do, not to just sit back and wait for the rapture, but to LIVE . . . to live a godly life out loud. And like St. Francis of Assisi said, "use words if necessary".

So, what's in your tank? Choose to make it the Lord today and every day.

Love,
Joelene